SONA 2013: Reality Check - A Reaction or Reflection Paper

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• SONA 2013 Full Transcript English
• SONA 2013 Full Transcript Tagalog
• SONA 2012 Reaction Paper
  

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SONA 2013 Reaction Paper

The State of the Nation Address is delivered by the president every fourth Monday of July. And last July 21, 2013, President Benigno Aquino III delivered his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA 2013) which was attended by lots of personalities especially our political leaders, senators, house representatives, cabinet members, the Chief Justice, media people and many more. It usually starts by 4 PM and it indeed started that time and took almost two hours for our president to finish his speech.

Aquino talked about various national issues. In his SONA 2013, he highlighted 25 key issues which includes the Expansion of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), Strengthening of the agricultural sector, Appeal to fishers, Distribution of Hacienda Luisita land, Extension of PhilHealth coverage, Protecting Filipinos from natural calamities, Solving the problem of floods, Housing for cops and soldiers, Amendment of SSS Pension Scheme, Strengthening the police force, Probe into Ozamiz Gang killing, Mindanao peace process, More caution in government contracts, Removal of informal settlers from high-risk areas, Sin Tax Reform and Responsible Parenthood laws, Proposed 2014 National Budget, Possible MRT/LRT fare hike, Improved irrigation system for farmers, Public-Private Partnership projects, Brownouts in Mindanao, Renovation of NAIA 3, Solving Metro Manila's traffic, 'Best Tourism Destination of 2012', Dividends from GOCCs, and Resurgence of PHL economy.

It has been three years since majority of Filipino voters elected the son of the so-called “heroes” into the highest office in the land and once again, he faced everyone to tackle and address the issues of the country during his leadership. The main issues mentioned above where obviously those he thought were good accomplishments. In fact, the statistics he presented on almost all of those really increased and was impressive which he was proud to say that his administration had done something good for the country and its people. If we take a look at the bright side of things, based on the increase and improvements for example on our agricultural sector, the tourist visit on both foreign and domestic, the benefit of 4Ps, will really tell that there were indeed good changes and better management of the Philippines in his 3 years of service.

But on the second thought, the culture of impunity remains alive and well under his presidency. The State of the Nation Address should not only be about what you did good for the country and the people, it should also be about being honest, admitting your flaws and expressing your plans on how to treat those issues because SONA is supposed to be what you can address the entire nation whether it’s good or bad. When we take a look at the back of those accomplishments that he presented, we can really see lots of issues that should be addressed more like the unresolved case of the Maguindanao massacre, the unemployment rate, the other side of 4Ps, Philippines’ territorial disputes with our Asian neighbors like China and Malaysia, US Military’s usage of Subic in their military services and many more.

When people go through President Aquino’s previous SONAs, they will find that some of the stuff that he claimed he already achieved was still on the drawing board. They appeared to remain as still plans because he kept on focusing too much on the wrong set of priorities and gone about achieving his goals the wrong way like prioritizing the impeachment of ex-Chief Justice Renato Corona instead of solving the Maguindanao Massacre case where 56 people died. He then granted the position of new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to his longtime friend and former classmate, Maria Lourdes Sereno even when there were candidates more qualified for the position.

As he also mentioned in his SONA 2013 about the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), the Filipinos without realizing that it could be considered another short-term or “Band-Aid” solution thought this was very helpful to them. It is indeed helpful now but how about after Aquino’s term? The government is increasing their budget on this project instead of focusing on how to give these people permanent jobs and not just rely on their cash transfer. The president also gloss over briefly on issues about China and Malaysia which he knew it would only give Filipinos more questions and doubt about their security and safety. He also high lightened the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro that will pave way for peace in Mindanao not mentioning their agreement which according to reports, 50-50 sharing but with incremental increases in access to fossil fuels and uranium not minding people’s perception in the deal as giving in the rebel forces of the MILF and technically giving away the region.

But he never forgot to mention the economic growth of the country which will be the number one basis of majority of us to say that he had done a great job in making the Philippines better economically. Unfortunately, this economic growth rate will not really mean much to the unemployed Flipinos because the primary driver of the Philippine economy is the spending of the consumers and the government and this does not create permanent jobs for people outside the retail and building industry especially the poor families.

Despite all these unveiled issues during SONA 2013, it is still good to know that somehow, he is trying to make a name for the country and his accomplishments were the fruit of his and his administration’s leadership and hard work.President Aquino’s ending statement is also very commendable which he expressed how proud he was to be a Filipino and encouraged everyone to be proud also. He said,"Ipinagmamalaki ko sa buong mundo, Pilipino ako. Napakasarap maging Pilipino sa panahong ito."

You can’t really please everybody. It is also important that we support our leaders too so that they will implement their plans and projects easily. Let’s just hope that his plans will be realized before his term will end in 2016 because as the saying goes, “Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work”.

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