SONA, same old nonsense from Gloria Arroyo, says UNO

July 27, 2008

The political opposition said the Same Old Nonsense from the Administration will come out of today’s SONA of President Arroyo.

The United Opposition (UNO) said it expects nothing new in Mrs. Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address.

“We would have appreciated candor from Mrs. Arroyo, given the glaring economic realities facing our people. Instead, her Sona will be another long speech offering an alternate reality, one where people are not going hungry, oil is cheap, and national officials are the symbols of moral leadership,” Makati Mayor and UNO president Jejomar Binay said.

“Enough with the spin and the empty promises from GMA, no one believes her anyway,” UNO spokesman Adel Tamano said.

“It would be a truly unique GMA Sona if she will tell the truth. But based on the preview given by Malacañang, it will be just the usual GMA Sona, which we can now rename as the Same Old Nonsense from the Administration,” he said.

Palace officials on Sunday said Mrs. Arroyo’s Sonawill focus on the so-called relief from high oil and food prices being given by the national government. She is expected to talk at length about the billions of pesos in subsidies for the poor, sourced from windfall collections from the Expanded Value-Added Tax (EVAT).

Binay said nations facing difficult times usually rally around their leaders, but the people are not backing Mrs. Arroyo’s initiatives because of lingering doubts on her legitimacy.

“In times of crisis, national leaders are expected to summon the support of the people and the people are expected to rally around their leaders. But such is not the case here, and not even billions of pesos in so-called subsidies to the poor will convince the people that Mrs. Arroyo has the legitimate mandate to lead them,” he said.

With Mrs. Arroyo remaining untruthful with her Sona, Tamano said it would be

better for the Filipino people to totally ignore Monday’s event.

“Since the truth and plain talk about the real State of the Nation will be a very rare commodity in GMA’s Sona, the people would be better off going to Commonwealth Avenue and listening to the People’s SONA, where the opposition, progressive groups, and NGOs will tell the people how things really are and how difficult life has become under the GMA Administration,” Tamano said.

“To put to lie the absurd claim by GMA, placed on giant posters all over the country, that Filipinos are feeling the progress under the GMA Administration, which in the vernacular is “Randam ang Kaunlaran,” he added.

The latest Pulse Asia report said two out of every five Filipinos who have heard or read President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s past State of the Nation Addresses do not expect her to be truthful in her Monday’s Sona.

The survey from July 1 to 14 covered 1,200 adults nationwide, of which 60 percent said they were aware of Arroyo’s past State of the Nation speeches.

Of those aware, only 14 percent believe the President will tell the truth, and 46 percent were undecided, the survey showed.

The survey also found that 46 percent or almost half of those who heard or read the President’s past SONAs did not believe in their truthfulness, while another 41 percent were uncertain. Most of those surveyed come from classes D and E, with 46 percent and 49 percent, respectively, saying the Sonas were untruthful. Only 13 percent of the “aware” respondents believed in the past Sonas’ truthfulness.

“Past public skepticism regarding President Arroyo’s Sonas appears to have become stronger and now makes it difficult for her to maximize her forthcoming Sona’s political value,” said the Pulse Asia Survey, adding that the current level of public indecision regarding the possible truthfulness of the President’s next Sona showed a 9-percentage-point decrease from 55 percent in July 2007 to 46 percent in July 2008.

Reaffirming the government’s stand on the population control issue should be one of the focuses of Mrs. Arroyo’s Sona, the Catholic bishops’ leadership, meanwhile, said.

CBCP Episcopal Commission on Family and Life chairman Archbishop Paciano Aniceto said Mrs. Arroyo should uphold her stand on natural family planning.

“I hope the President reaffirm her stand that life is sacred and that the foundation of a strong republic is a strong family…which is also the foundation of the whole civilization,” he said.

Aniceto made the statement to reporters at the sidelines of the prayer rally for the 40th anniversary celebration of the Humanae Vitae at the University of Santo Tomas parade ground in Manila yesterday.

The Pampanga archbishop noted Arroyo assured the bishops many times that she will only be supporting the use of natural birth control methods to curb the country’s growing population.

He said the President also “promised” them that she will be pushing for natural for family planning method in her Sona.

Asked what they will do next in case she goes against her assurances, the prelate said they will just continue to remind her that “she is a Catholic.”

Arroyo had met recently with several bishops to hear their position on the reproductive health bills pending in Congress.

She said she has asked the leaders of the Lower House to meet with the Catholic Church leaders to discuss the measure.

CBCP head Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said the bishops are hopeful the lawmakers to “rethink” their position of supporting the “anti-life” bills.

“Ang amin lang sinasabi ay sana magkaroon sila ng paghuhunusdili at, tayo, bawat isa meron panahon at meron naman chance na magbago ng kanilang saloobin at magbago ng kanilang kaisipan at damdamin sa kalooban ng Panginoong Diyos,” Lagdameo said.

ECFL executive secretary Fr. Melvin Castro hopes the ongoing debate on the controversial bill will somehow give the public a chance to examine the measure.

“Nakakatuwa kasi maaring merong hindi naga-agree sa Church sa kanyang position pero the mere fact na napagde-debatihan ito ngayon ay magandang way para maging aware yung ating mamamayan sa ganitong partikular isyu,” Castro said.

The prayer rally gathered an estimated 12,000 pro-lifers coming from all walks of life, police officials said.

Aside from Lagdameo and Aniceto, other bishops present in the rally were Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales, Tarlac Bishop Florentino Cinense, Marbel Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez, Gumaca Bishop Buenaventura Famadico, Lipa Archbishop Ramon Arquelles, Antipolo Bishop Gabriel Reyes, San Fernando auxiliary Bishop Roberto Mallari , Balanga Bishop Socrates Villegas, Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco, Manila auxiliary Bishop Bernardino Cortez, Novaliches Bishop Antonio Tobias and Cabanatuan Bishop Sofronio Bancud.

Some politicians who also made their presence felt were Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, former Manila mayor Lito Atienza, former senator Francisco Tatad, Senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel, Paranaque Representatives Roilo Golez and Eduardo Zialcita, Manila Representative Tricia Bonoan David and even boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao.

Among the groups that participated in the gathering were the Couples for Christ, Buhay party-list, Human Life International–Asia, Pro-Life Philippines, Christ’s Family Mission Movement, Catholic Women’s League and the Knights of Columbus along with several other representatives of various dioceses.

Administration lawmakers also called on Mrs. Arroyo’s critics to avoid prejudging her Sona even as they underscored its importance in highlighting the government’s national welfare programs which are vital in alleviating the plight of the people during the current hard times spawned by the spiraling prices of oil and food.

House Senior Deputy Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said the President’s critics are doing the country a disservice by prejudging the President’s message to the nation, which will outline the administration’s accomplishments and thrusts for the coming year with emphasis on the present crisis on prices of basic commodities.

“The President’s Sona is for all Filipinos so we can be guided what measures to undertake to surmount this crisis. Regardless of our political affiliations or beliefs, our unity and cooperation are paramount in ensuring our survival from the present crisis. The President as the leader of our nation has sounded the need for our attention and cooperation in implementing projects and programs that will address our problems,” said Gonzales.

Rep. Antonio Alvarez (Kampi, Palawan), chairman of the House committee on trade and industry, said the President deserves all the attention and support as she bares her new policies and programs to ease the impact of the global prices of oil and food on the people’s lives.

“There’s no room for apathy and skepticism in light of the problems we’re facing. We remain confident that the President can steer the country towards the path of socio-economic survival. And I completely disagree with those who say that her Sonas were untruthful because there are projects she mentioned in her previous Sona which are in fact ongoing in my district,” said Alvarez.

Rep. Rodolfo Valencia (Lakas, Oriental Mindoro), chairman of the House committee on housing and urban development, said it will be a laudable gesture if the President’s critics ultimately choose to listen to the chief executive’s Sona in light of the present issues confronting the nation. “It’s unfair for the President’s critics to prejudge her Sona and ignore her appeal for unity and support for government’s pro-people, pro-poor programs.”

Valencia likewise hit a Pulse survey showing only a few believe that the President’s Sonas were truthful. “The numerous accomplishments of the Arroyo administration in the past seven years completely belie such survey. The President managed to fulfill the core of her vision step-by-step, year-by-year focusing on job generation, better education, more homes, and food security. On education alone, more than 50,000 teaching positions were created from 2002 to 2007 while 600,000 high school scholarships will be given this year alone.”

Rep. Antonio Cerilles (NPC, Zamboanga del Sur), chairman of the special committee on land use, said it is time the President’s critics show political maturity and contribute to the nation’s survival from the present crisis. ‘Her critics should be sensible enough to listen to her Sona after all the President is our chief executive. It is her responsibility to report to the nation and bare her new policies which she deems are effective in easing our problems.”

Cerilles said the President’s critics are the ones being untruthful for ignoring those fulfilled commitments of the administration based on past Sonas. “For instance, in the area of transportation, we should laud the Arroyo administration for the opening of NAIA Terminal 3 and the completion of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway this year which are beneficial to the public.”

Nueva Vizcaya’s lone congressional representative, however, sees no benefit for President Arroyo to make new promises in the Sona which she cannot be expected to keep.

Rep. Carlos Padilla suggested instead that she stick to keeping the promises she had already made in her Ten Point Development Agenda.

Padilla said it was not advisable for her to make additional promises to the people on top of the many promises she had made in her seven previous Sonas.

“Considering that (the President) has just two years left in her term, my unsolicited advice is not to commit new programs but to concentrate on how the Ten Point Agenda and previous Sona commitments are implemented,” Padilla said.

Isabela Rep. Giorgidi Aggabao said he didn’t expect anything positive to be said during the Sona owing to the country’s dismal state, due to rising prices of prime commodities. “Despite this, I still consider it important to listen to what she has to say,” he added.

For his part, Ifugao Gov. Teodoro Baguilat, a former media man, said he, too doesn’t expect anything interesting from the President’s Sona.

“With (her) approval rating (being on the down trend)…being an outgoing president, I don’t think any one is interested in (hearing her) long-term plans but more on swift stop-gap measures to bring down prices,” he said. Ted Boehnert

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