(SONA 2001 -2008 frames courtesy of Flowell Galindez)
It was a State Of the Nation Address unlike all the 8 annual speeches that came before it.
I have to confess that the valedictory of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has given this often jaded observer three very clear indications:
1. Mrs. Arroyo will step down from office on June 30, 2010;
2. She does not want her term extended, and;
3. She has no intention of declaring martial law.
This final SONA of hers rightly focused on the economy’s undeniable gains during the Arroyo watch and how the foundations have been laid for the 15th President of the Philippines we Filipinos will elect in the country’s first fully automated elections on May 10, 2010.
My bases for these conclusions come from these verbatim quotes:
1. “I did not become President to be popular but to work, to lead, to protect, to preserve our country and our people. That is why I became President. When my father left the Presidency, we were second to Japan. I want to see our Republic to the first world in 20 years.”
2. “The strong, bitter, and unpopular revenue measures of the past few years have spared our country the worst of the global financial shocks. They gave us the resources to stimulate the economy. Nabigyan ng pinakamalaking pagtaas ng IRA ang mga LGU na P40 billion itong taon, imparting strength throughgout the country at every level of government.”
3. “Sa telecommunications, inaatasan ko ang Telecomunications Commission na kumilos na tungkol sa mga sumbong na dropped calls at mga nawawalang load sa cellphone. We need to amend the Commonweath-era Public Service Law. And we need to do it now.”
4. “With earnings of $6 billon and employment of 600,000, the BPO phenomenon speaks eloquently of our competitiveness and productivity. Let us have a Department of ICT.”
5. “Cash handouts give the most immediate relief and produce the widest stimulating effects. This year conditional cash transfers will benefit 700,000 poorest of the poor families. I ask Congress to institutionalize them.”
6. “Pitong milyong entrepreneurs na ang nakinabang sa P165 bilyon na microfinsnce.”
7. “Umabot na sa halos lahat ng mga barangay ang elektrisidad. We increased indigenous energy from 48% to 58%. Nakatipid tayo sa dollars tapos na reduce pa iyong oil consumption.”
8. “The huge reduction in fossil fuel is the biggest proof of energy independence and environmental responsibility. Further reduction will come with the full implementation of the Renewable Energy Act and the Biofuels Act. Thank you, Congress.”
9. “The Presidential Task Force on Education headed by Jesuit educator, Father Bienvenido Nebres has come out with the Philippine Main Education Highway towards a Knowledge-based Economy. It envisions seamless education from basic to vocational school or college. We want early childhood education included in basic education. Our children are our most cherished possession. In their early years we must make sure they get a healthy start in life. They must receive the right food for a healthy body, the right education for a bright nd inquiring mind — sand the equality of opportunity for a meaningful job.”
10. “In good times and bad our overseas Filipinos keep our nation resilient. Their remittances of $16 billion last year were a record. This year they are even higher.
11. “We are working to create high-paying jobs here at hope so that overseas work will just be a career choice, not the only option for a talented Filipino in search of a better life.”
12. “We should make their sacrifices worthwhile, we should take stronger measures to preserve and enhance the value of their hard earned wages. That means stronger consumer protection for OFWs investing in property and products back home. For them I am activating an Investors Protection Task Force.”
13. “I have accepted the invitation of President Barack Obama to be the first Southeast Asian leader to meet him at the White House this week. High on our agenda will be peace and security issues. Terrorism: how to meet it, how to end it, how to address the roots in historical injustice or religious prejudice. – and first and always how to protect innocent lives.”
14. In 2008 up to the first quarter of 2009 we stood among only a few economies in Asia Pacific that did not shrink. While in 2001 when a failure o effective government put me at the helm of the state, Asia was surging but our economy was on the brink of bankruptcy.
Since then our economy posted uninterrupted growth for 33 quarters… more than doubled its size from $ 76 billion to $186 billion. The average GDP growth from 2001 to the first quarter of 2009 is the highest in 43 years.”
15. “There is nothing more that I wish than peace in Mindanao. It will be a blessing for all its people, Muslim, Christian and Lumads. It will show religiously divided communities that there can be common ground on which to live together in peace, harmony and cooperation that respects each other’s religious belief.”
16. “Real government is about looking beyond the vested to the national interest, setting up the necessary conditions the next, more enables, more empowered generation to achieve a as prosperous, a people ad content, as our deserve to be. Current critics of constitutional reform tirelessly and shamelessly attempted Cha-Cha when they thought they could take advantage of a shift in the form of government. They oppose it now that they cannot benefit from it. As the process of fundamental political reform begins let us address the highest exercise… voting. I said we would finance fully automated elections. WE GOT IT, thanks to Congress.”
17. “My term does not end until next year. Until then, I will fight for the ordinary Filipino. The nation comes first. There is much to do as head of state – to the very last day.”
18. “As the campaign unfolds and the candidates take to the airwaves, I ask them to talk more about how they will build up the nation rather than tear down their opponents. Our candidates must understand the complexities of our government and what it takes to move the country forward.”
19. “Meanwhile I will keep a steady hand in the tiller, keeping the ship of state away from the shallows some prefer, and steering it straight to the course I set in 2001.”
20. “A year is a long time. Patuloy ang pamumuhunan sa tinatawag na three E’s ng Ekonomiya, Environment, at Edukasyon.”
21. “We cannot be complacent. We only know that we have generated mo resources on which to draw and thereby created options we could take. Thank God we did not let our critics stop us.”
22. Everything right can be undone by even a single wrong. Every step forward must be taken in the teeth of political pressures and economic constraints that could push you two steps back if you flinch and falter. I have not. Di ako umaatras sa hamon.”
23. “I will protect democracy with law and order where it is subverted by anarchy; and always and ever I will try to sustain it by wise policies of economic progress, so that a democracy means not just empty liberty but a full life for all.
24. “I never expressed the desire to extend myself beyond my term.”
Pres. Arroyo didn’t mention them by name but everyone listening to her knew who she was referring to when she cited critics “who are walking evidence of having used his office for personal gain and was jailed for it.”
Her advice for critics aspiring for high office “not to say bad words and take decisive action instead of pussyfooting” also hit the mark.
I will leave it to the mainstream to recap the economic achievements enumerated by Pres. Arroyo.
But from where I sit I believe it is fair to say she earned the applause that punctuated the speech.
Mrs. Arroyo should use the next ten months to ensure the achievements she cited are not undone by any new scandals and inglorious acts.
Popularity: 1% [?]
On the same verbatim quotes:
1 – rhetorics
2 – short-term cushioning effect on the global financial shock of a weak national economy
3 – just leave NTC to do its job, not worth mentioning to make Enrile laugh
4 – streamline DOLE than create a DICT just because of $6 billion earnings from BPO
5 – cash handouts make the poor pecking pigeons in the Skinner’s cage and tolerates mendicancy
6 – with loans in microfinance come so-called ‘loan sharks’
7 – indigenous energy should be state-subsidized as well
8 – good points for Renewable Energy or the role of scientists like blackshama
9 – what is it like ‘jesuitizing’ the educational system? thanks to the Jesuit priest who heads a Presidential Task Force
10 – $16 billion from OFW remittances buoy up the economy and therefore allows GMA’s ship of state not to go aground or sink
11 – what high paying jobs for otherwise OFWs are we talking about – paid those in the domestic industry the rates of CEOs?
12 – Investors Protection Task Force to protect OFWs investing in property or product? why can’t we leave them alone?
13 – okay, GMA meets Obama at the While House and hope that such words will not be said – “cut clean”
I guess the 14th on to the 24th quotes will be on the next installment, if I find time. Just my quick take on the quotes above mentioned.
I’m in your debt, Prime. :)
14 – in 2001, bankcrupt and in 2008 on to 2009, her economy did not shrink a bit – might be misleading according to one observer since it serves only the short-end goal but not the long-term objective which should be the case
15 – to say that peace in Mindanao is brought about by religious conflict again misleads and I thought, GMA should have done good her economics in that part of the country since most state subsidies are lopsided in favor of Luzon and imperial Manila
16 – it now sounds GMA still imagines to benefit from a cha-cha which his critics do now oppose
17 – there is so much to do till the last day except to say some overtures like, my watch is coming to an end and this SONA shall be the last people will hear from me (her speaking)like Cory did
18 – that was a great ‘motherly advice’ but more on the breach than on the observance, what with his rabid spokespersons always on the tube
19 – what ’tiller’? that escapes my understanding of naval lingo, maybe she means the “conn”
20 – if a year is a long time, it means to me that all of 8 years were a waste given the economic realities on the ground
21 – “we did not let our critics stop us” – great line but couldn’t she be hallucinating since what really are those things that his critics stop her from doing that she did not do?
22 – good to know that indeed GMA did not flinch and falter and does so still now
Reserve for next the last 2 more quotes.
Daaang, Primer, you beat me to it:
14. Yes, because VAT taxes wealth and re-distributes it to the nation, as it should; next, tax land at its true high value.
15. Love the income from our main manufactured product, babies, which are waxed and polished for a few years and then sent overseas to produce a huge cushion of revenue that other countries are missing out on.
16. Uhhh, beware “mission accomplished” slogans until the election is actually fairly and professionally tallied; but this idea of “planning ahead”, now that is worth putting some weight behind.
17. Then stay at your desk and do it; when you return from your tea with Mr. Obama put your suitcase aside until June.
18. Yes, and focus first on making government finance forthright and visible to the citizens, rather than obfuscated as it has been the past nine years. Plunder is so hard for the watchdogs to find now . . .
19. Refer to Ding, please, and avoid the scandals that have infected the upper reaches of your household.
20. A year is long enough to resurrect a reputation, in fact.
21. Please refer to the Constitution and remove God from your public utterances, or at least thank Allah, too, and Isis maybe . . . or Darwin.
22. Many of the steps backward were of your own making. Responsibility, responsibility, responsibility – take it.
23. Reads like martial law to me.
24. Riiiight . . .And you will not run for re-election . . . oopsie, guess you did . . . Trust me, there is a reason people lost a bit of trust in you.
Joe
SONA as media/blogging topic dies down in a few more days.
This one won’t:
23 – this must reconciled with what she said:
“At sa lahat ng dako ng bansa, kailangan nating protektahan ang ating mga mamamayan kontra sa krimen’ — in their homes, in their neighborhoods, in their communities. How shall crime be fought? With the five pillars of justice, including crime fighters. We call on Congress to fund more policemen on the streets.”
24 – again, this must reconcile with what GMA said or words to that effect that the Bangko Sentral would be more effective if they there is Charter Change? so what really is the truth in this double-talk?
1) 9 years pa lang, nasa top ten na ang Pilipinas sa most corrupt sa buong mundo….20 years pa na pinapangarap niyang hawakan ang Pilipinas.
2) ayos na ang 2010 election…well distributed na ang funds sa mga LGU’s :)
3)kailangan pa bang sabihin yan.
4)wish ko lang.
5)pang election yan, at pangtakip sa mata at bibig
6)yan ang bilang na i-dagdag sa balota.
7)indigenous energy?…bakit nabago na ba yung national guarantee conditions ng power producers…at pasagot ng meralco sa mga electricity losses.
8)nawala na ba ang smog sa metro manila?
9)kaya pala ang daming text books na wrong grammar…dapat si Bro Bo Sanchez na lang kinuha niya…meron siyang homeschool… sa katunayan…yung mga anak niya ay never nag-attend tulad sa mga regular school.
10)ano pa ba ang aasahang trabaho ng mga pinoy d2 sa pinas?…OYSTER?
11) OYSTER nga.
12)protection kay bogart…sanay na sanay na ang mga officials ng gobyerno dyan…to operate a manufacturing plant sa Pilipinas lalo na sa remote areas…kailangan si Bogart dyan.
13) pandagdag lang sa achievement, kaya sinabi sa SONA…wala nang maisip pang iba.
14)bankrupt?…anong taon bang maraming bangko ang nagsara?…at anong taon din ba maraming bumagsak na preneed companies?…
15)bawasan ang corruption sa Mindanao…at dagdagan ang tunay na serbisyo at programa ng gobyerno…
16) botohan na lang daw sa chacha…puwersahan na yan.
17)gusto pang humirit ng another 20 years.
18)syempre, kasi daming mantsa nung i-endorse nyang candidate.
19)feeling magaling mag-timon.
20)sabi nga…sana bukas ay June 12, 2010 na!…10 mos pa…mahaba-habang panahon yan para makapag-ipon pa.
21)NBN-ZTE…buti na lang napigilan…kundi dagdag pabigat sa susunod na Presidente.
22) sino ba ang aatras…ang di sumunod tanggal sa pwesto.kumbaga…hawak sa leeg (AFP/PNP/DOJ/Supreme Court Davide at barkada ni FG)…pag naiba ng giya…ibig sabihin may sariling lakad.
23)ang di sumunod tanggal sa pwesto…ang daming Generals na pamalit eh.
24)never expressed…pero naghihintay na may tumulak.