PGMA'S SONA 2009

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

It will be President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s last hurrah to peddle dreams for the Philippines.What more can we expect? The SONA or the STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS is an annual activity of an incumbent president as mandated by the constitution to make a progress report to the nation with both houses of congress in joint seesion and of course in front of the glaring TV cameras for both local and international consumption. What has been done? What’s up? What’s in store? What’s new? These are the usual stuff in a president’s SONA.

Let’s make a recap of her first SONA in 2001.We were still on upbeat mode at that time after Joseph Estrada was booted out from Malacanang as to what this good lady can offer to Filipinos. That was eight years ago. It’s still fresh in my mind the drama being peddled that time with the three young boys from PAYATAS doing a symbolic act of sending their dreams via the PASIG RIVER on a paper boat to the doorsteps of MALACANANG PALACE. Those were JOMAR, JAYSON and ERWIN. “NAPAKALINAW, NAPAKASIMPLE ANG HILING NG MGA ANAK NG PAYATAS: TRABAHO. EDUKASYON. SARILING TAHANAN. IDAGDAG NA RIN: PAGKAIN SA BAWAT MESA. ITO ANG MITHIIN NG MASA”, PGMA said in her SONA 2001. Where are they now? I’m sure they’re already grown ups nowadays. Natupad ba ang mga pangarap nila? Uy, kayo dyan Pedro, Juan, Berto, may pagkain ba sa mesa nyo? May tirahan at trabaho na ba kayo? Moreover, in that SONA 2001 she emphasized “THE FOURTH COMPONENT OF OUR NATIONAL AGENDA IS IMPROVING MORAL STANDARDS AND THE RULE OF LAW.” Huh?!? ZTE BRODBAND DEAL, FERTILIZER FUND SCAM, NORTH RAIL PROJECT etc…with an obvious participation of the powers that be, what kind of moral standard do we have for leaders today? What more can we expect in her SONA 2009 considering that it’s already an election year and everybody in the political family will be pre-occupied in campaigning to make it sure an ally would be the next tenant in Malacanang? (Save for the NO-EL scenario). Whatever policy directions she will be outlining in her SONA 2009 will have no chance of materializing during her last months in office unless the good president have a PLAN A and PLAN B to perpetuate herself in power beyond 2010. Are you still optimistic a peace deal could still be forged between the government and the communists as well as the moro seccessionists in the south? No way! Otherwise if an agreement could be forged, it could be one full of holes being done in haste to suit political interests.

So if you think it is still worth the time listening to the SONA of 2009, go ahead because it’s your inherent right. Ako siyempre makinig para makapag blog ulit (hehe) for the issue and not that I’m interseted to hear another set of promises.
[N.B. The full text of SONA 2009 will be posted here as soon as it will be avialable to the public at http://www.op.gov.ph. For SONA, SONA 2009 updates, you can subscribe to my RSS by FEED or by E-MAIL]

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Tags: PGMA'S SONA 2009, SONA 2009, STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS 2009

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 16th, 2009 at 4:22 am and is filed under ISSUES, NEWS & FEATURES, POINT OF VIEWS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.