MANILA TIMES: THE STATE OF THE NATION
MANILA, JULY 27, 2011 - (MANILA TIMES) IN his second State of the Nation Address yesterday, President Benigno S. C. Aquino spoke of some of the many good things and reforms his administration has accomplished and started.
We praise him for all the achievements and reforms.
Still, truly so much more must be done to make the state of the Philippine nation satisfactory.
The President and his Cabinet secretaries, for example, have to make an indisputable truth of his assertion that this "government . . . truly works for you [the people]." The President, thank God, knew that the statement was a bit excessive. So the next sentence in his speech was, "We still have five years left to ensure that we will not return to what once was. We will not be derailed, especially now that what we have begun has yielded so many positive results."
We wholeheartedly agree with him in this exhortation:
"Let us end the culture of negativism; let us uplift our fellow Filipinos at every opportunity. Why are there people who enjoy finding fault in our country, who find it so hard—as though it were a sin—to say something nice? Can we even remember the last time we praised a fellow Filipino?"
We hope he does not consider this and other constructive Times editorials a product of that culture of negativism.
We do not quite agree that "We [the President and his aides] are steering our government in a clear direction."
We want nothing less than for Mr. Aquino and his administration to succeed magnificently, irreversibly. And we can see that the campaign against corruption is the major note in his battle hymn for good governance.
But, alas, we, like many in the domestic and foreign business communities, cannot see the President's and his key men's clear directions about how to arrive at concrete and detailed action plans to achieve the dozens of goals written in the National Economic and Development Authority's Philippine Development Plan.
In fact in that comprehensive work the NEDA correctly states that the visions, goals and strategies presented (covering every sector of our economy) have to be fleshed out in action programs in the executive departments. In some instances, the NEDA PDP even calls for the passage of specific laws without which the goals and strategies could not be pursued and applied.
And very commendably, the NEDA secretary has even called for area-based implementation plans and programs. This means that these should be crafted by regional, provincial and local government units and development councils—with the participation or guidance of the central government.
We neither heard any mention of how the work on these details is going on in the President's SONA yesterday nor in any statements or reports made by Cabinet departments in the weekly sessions with media organized by the Philippine Information Agency.
We must therefore remind the President and his collaborators that without these programs and projects, ours is a country still remote from being, as he claimed yesterday, "a country where opportunity is available; where those in need are helped; where everyone's sacrifices are rewarded; and where those who do wrong are held accountable."
Yes, thanks to some of the achievements of the Aquino administration this past year, some opportunities are available to some; some of those in need have been helped. But the NEDA PDP's prescriptions for "inclusive growth" is still a dream.
And we must point out that while the wangwang seems to have gone, we now have the woop-woop-woop. Many cars and SUVs use it to gain an advantage over other motorists in the throes of the daily crazy traffic on Commonwealth Avenue. Yesterday, more asserted their elite status with their woop-woop-woop on their way to hear the President's SONA.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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