The Philippine Online Chronicles

Three days ago, on July 26, 2010, President Noynoy Aquino delivered his first State of the Nation Address (SONA). After dispensing with the formalities, he went ahead and revealed what was probably the first true state of the nation—a country riddled with anomalies in the Metropolitan Waterworks Sewerage System (MWSS), National Food Authority (NFA), National Power Corportaion (Napocor), Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT). Aside from this, we enter the second half of the year with only a little over 6% left on the national budget to spend for the remaining five months of the year.

Finally! The highest ranking person in government telling and confirming to us what we’ve known all along! Listening to the SONA, you can’t help but yell out “I knew it!” or “Oh my ghad! Sabi ko na nga ba!”

Now what?

If you listened to the SONA carefully, you’ll notice that after all the mind blowing statistics and highly inflammatory statements, there’s really not that much meat to the speech (me-thinks). The best tagline newspapers in the country could come up with was “No more tong-pats”.

In terms of delivering quote memorable SONAs , at least former Presdient Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (PGMA) had “Super Regions” as a quotable quote during the 2009 SONA. Her SONAs always made it seem like there was so much potential in the country. The way she delivered her economic report, I sometimes thought she was talking about another country!

We waited in baited breath what Pres. Aquino, also known as P-Noy, had in store for us.

To address the problem of the budget deficit, the is Government is pursuing tax evaders. However, no specific amounts were mentioned as to how much they are planning to recover through this method. Are the tax evaders in the country that plentiful that if taxes were properly collected, they would make up for the enormous budget deficit?

P-Noy looks into joint projects with the private sector so that infrastructure projects can be made without cost to the government. Forgive me if I feel wary about this approach. After the ZTE scandal, the Filipino public is less than enthusiastic about getting private firms involved in government work. Let’s hope these public–private partnerships are not another means for those in power to steal from the public. It sounds good in theory, but it’s always the execution where things get screwed up.

Where are the specific plans to address unemployment and improve the standard of living? P-Noy never really answered his own question, “How will the unemployed become consumers?” Obviously, the process will take time and more than one privilege speech to make a reality, or even half of a reality.

No wonder the President had to invoke God’s aid to see us through.

The SONA is the basis by which the President gets evaluated. By next year, we should hear an update on how well he delivered on his promises based on this year’s Address. Since Pres. Noynoy didn’t exactly set the bar that high, we can only surmise the he’s being realistic and doesn’t want to paint himself in a corner by making promises he can’t deliver.

Let’s give the new administration time to settle in and get to work. Give it a chance. This is an unprecedented time in our history where we have a sitting president that won uncontestably. P-Noy is enjoying an 85% trust rating from the public. That’s much higher than US President Barrack Obama’s! Also, it’s the first time almost all Congressmen and Senators are present at the joint session. The fact that they came in full force (except for three) to hear what he had to say, and are giving him a chance to prove himself instead of just writing him off as someone spewing off lies, means that Pres. Aquino and the rest of the nation has a chance for change.

“No to tong-pats” may not be classy, sophisticated or intelligent, but it resonates with the masses and all Filipinos tired of corruption.

After the SONA, now what?

• Now is time to be vigilant and hold our public officials accountable.
• Now is the time to ensure that all elected officials deliver on their campaign promises.
• Now is the time of reckoning for former Pres. turned Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
• Now is the time to change within ourselves, stop the mentality of entitlement and not rely on the government for everything.
• Now is the time to seize the opportunity for change.
• Now is the time to get to work—real hard work!

Photos by Peter Baltazar. Some Rights Reserved.