State of the Nation Address of Pres. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino

The State of the Nation Address is an annual event in the Republic of the Philippines, in which the President of the Philippines reports on the status of the nation, normally to the resumption of a joint session of the Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate. This is a duty of the President as stated in Article VII, Section 23 of the 1987 Constitution. It had been a year since President NoyNoy Aquino assumed the presidency. Our main question perhaps is what have he done during his first 365 days? What are his plans for our country in the next five years both long term and short term?

First and foremost I would like to applaud PNoy for his use of our national language.  He had used Filipino in his entire speech which means that the State of the Nation Address is truly for the Filipino people and not just a means to impress foreigners or the learned. President Aquino opened his SONA with the reminder of what he promised during his inauguration, which is the removal of the culture of corruption in the country. He referred to this as the "culture of the wang-wang." "Wang-wang" refers to the siren usually attached to vehicles of law enforcement but before he was elected it was also used abusively by government officials particularly the more influential ones. He also mentioned the fact that the fight against corruption is indeed a personal battle for him because he is elected to protect not only the powerful but most specially the Filipino people as a whole. PNoy sighted in his SONA the many cases of corruption including the missing funds in the ARMM and of course the P1Billion expenditure for coffee of PAGCOR. President Aquino also for the first time took recognition of Filipino invention and ingenuity. PNoy's SONA also highlighted economic gains which had been reached during his first year in office. He also has strong position regarding our island claims on the Spratlys located at the West Philippine Sea. To gear up our defenses,  he said that we are now fully modernizing the armed forces and in fact a modern boat and various helicopters are already on the way.

On the negative side, President Aquino’s SONA was notable for what it left out. Not a single word on Hacienda Luisita and land reform, the most critical issue facing the poor. There was hardly a mention of human rights issues, which is unacceptable given that extrajudicial killings, illegal arrests, and torture continue to be perpetrated with impunity by the AFP and PNP under this government’s watch. Neither did PNoy say anything about addressing the high cost of living; the main concern of the majority of the population. It should be noted as well that PNoy failed to endorse two key pieces of legislation that he pledged to support during his presidential campaign, the Reproductive Health bill and the Freedom of Information bill. As someone put it, he “chickened out” on these vital concerns at the crucial moment. PNoy claimed the Philippines’ upgraded credit rating as a major achievement of his administration. But what did it take to get that upgrade? Nothing less than continued gross underspending on social services and high regressive taxation. PNoy drew cheers for asserting the Spratly’s claim. But sovereignty over the Spratly’s and its oil and natural gas reserves will be meaningless if his government hands over the exploitation of these resources to the big oil corporations like Shell. PNoy touted his housing program for the uniformed services. But what about housing for other government employees, including teachers? What about social housing for the poor? Despite the Malacañang press office’s hype that this year’s SONA would be about the President’s vision for the country, where’s the vision? Absent from PNoy’s SONA is an articulation of his administration’s development plan, how agriculture and industry will be developed, how and what kind of jobs will be generated, how incomes will be raised, how delivery of social services will be improved. Where’s the plan for modernizing agriculture and the development of domestic industries?

 Many reactions were arousing, different opinions and ideas. I hope that it would be a challenge to PNoy’s part. He should react now. He should hear the voices of his fellowmen.