CRITICAL
ANALYSIS ON P-NOY’S SONA
The Philippine President Benigno
Simeon C. Aquino in his third SONA gave a detailed list of the present
administration’s accomplishments particularly commending the members of his
cabinet who were able to deliver noteworthy actions in response to what he said
were mostly backlogs of the previous administration.
I couldn’t help but notice how he
kept on comparing the accomplishments of his present administration to that of
GMA’s that it became almost a mouthful of finger pointing when we all know that
this present governance also has its share of shortcomings.
There are certain parts of his
speech which made me squirm to my seat and made me contemplate and compare to
what has been said and to what is actually happening around us.
Take for example how the President
said that the “Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program” is set to benefit 3.1
million Filipinos whose beneficiaries he said are now being carefully chosen as
opposed to how it used to be. To this my
thought drifted to those people falling in line in ATM machines with their 4Ps
ATM cards in hand although while some are obviously poor looking there are
certainly some of them who doesn’t fit the description as you see them decently
dressed with gold accessories at that.
Reality strikes back with the fact that still some of these
beneficiaries get enrolled because the Barangay Captain or someone with a
higher position endorsed them. This point
being that up to this day, some beneficiaries get political backing to be
listed, now isn’t this form of corruption?
The President also mentioned of how
Sec. Rene Almendras of the Department of Energy is making it possible for far
flung sitios to benefit from its electrification program but he never mentioned
how the government can solve the problem on the rising cost of electricity and
the lack of its supply particularly in Mindanao
area.
Then the President said relief goods
are now waiting for the victims of disasters and not the other way around but
sadly the President is most often out of sight at the height of every calamity
unlike the previous administration who made it a point to be on site where the
calamity is taking place to issue orders and make sure everything is in
place. Pnoy relies mostly from his
cabinet secretaries to respond and take action probably because he himself does
not know exactly what to do.
Moving on to the crime volume which
the president boasted to be going down as compared to the previous years but
then how come statistics remain to rise every single day.
On a lighter note being a daughter
of a government employee it was a welcome development when the President said
that government employees will be able to avail of 35 thousand pesos cash
incentive based on their performance aside from the Christmas bonus they
receive. I just hope that this will be
truly realized and not be subjected to politicking as well.
The President made special mention
on the Sin Tax Bill and that of responsible parenthood which is clearly about
the RH Bill although he didn’t really elaborate on said subjects still it was
enough validation that indeed he supports the said legislative measures.
It was also noteworthy that the
President cited the exemplary performance of Butuan City
In a way I find the President’s SONA
lacking in substance. It was just a
reportage of accomplishments but nothing solid and concrete were said on how
the present administration can address the clamor of the people for reform
through legislative measures. While it
blamed the previous administration for the ten years that was supposedly taken
from the Filipino people still the President should be reminded that his
present administration is actually still utilizing most of the policies which
GMA started like the 4Ps and the PHIC universal membership as examples. The present administration has up to this day
is not able to introduce radical measures which it can truly claim its own.
Perhaps, the President can work on
moving on and stop casting blames as what he has done in the last portion of
his speech blatantly expressing his reluctance to forgive and forget the past
administration he can at least start creating a mark of his own.
