I soaked in, thought of nothing else. I left my oppositionist view behind and played my digital copy of Monday's SONA in the comforts of my bedroom. I was touched by her speech about how the country weathered the storm in 2008 in her command, she painted a state so beautiful with her words that I wanted to live there. For a moment I forgot that she was GMA, our own president delivering the "state" of our own nation. Memories of poor Filipinos rushed through my mind and the hour and three minutes of wonderland courtesy of Her Excellency was now nowhere to be found.
It is true that the country did not technically went under recession last year but for most Filipinos, recession started a long time ago. Yes, many Filipinos underwent improvements in the quality of their lives but more plunged into deeper poverty. Arroyo presented a good, strong economy on paper but somebody has to remind the president that paper is not edible. Hungry Filipino population got bigger and bigger as her reign got longer and longer. Just a point to ponder.
She related her "achievements" in education by hiring 60,000 teachers and building 9,000 more classrooms but never mentioned the current student-book ratio and even the error-ridden new books. I was a product of a public elementary school and can attest that books were not available for every student in our central school, how much more in primary schools? Another interesting thing she pointed out was the scholarships given out in the course of her presidency. Again, somebody should open the eyes of the president on how her scholarships are being implemented in the grass roost level, using the "palakasan" system. Why not increase the budget of STATE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES in order to have a zero tuition and other fees. The pocketed funds on different controversial projects could have been more than enough to realize this dream. More students could have been benefited.
She said that JOBS ABROAD SHOULD BE A CAREER CHOICE, NOT THE ONLY OPTION. As a matter of fact Mrs. President, in the current STATE of our nation, jobs abroad are the only option because OFW remittance is our shield against the recession and the reason why we are still floating.
The president might have lived in the bubble for the past nine years or maybe she was just misguided by I don't know who. Yes she has concreted roads and gave out one-time relief to the poor but we must know that she is in power for over eight years now. A teacher once said that six years is too short for a good president but too long for an awful one. How do we classify Her Excelleny?
by: Ivar
7/29/09 8:23 P.M.
actually i did see or even heard the said SONA of our Madam President but as I read ur blog I was able to see the whole content of her speech. Although you have your opinion of the country under goes over the whole year. Even I was the true to life testament of some of the programs she had said during her speech. I myself is a government and I was very thankful for it is truelly a big help in my college studies but sometimes along its way. you would nknow that you have to earn for it. You have to wait and have your heart almost lost hope coz ur school will not allow you to take the exam coz CHED wasn't able to pay for your tution.
ReplyDeleteEversince I was a great fan of our Madam President she's been a working very hard for us. And it is true she cannot solve all our problems in a mare time she need an ample one. I believe irradicating all the issues surrounding her. She's been doing her best. I salute you Madam President.
To give a statistical point of view:
ReplyDeleteMrs. Arroyo claimed that her admin. attracted 15x more Foreign Investments than Ramos, the truth:
Ramos = $ 860 M / year for 6 years
GMA = $ 890 M / year for 8 years-1992 dollars
Totals:
Ramos = $ 9.5 B in 6 years
GMA = $12.1 B in 8 years or
$ 9.1 B in 6 years (pro-rata)
Regional Perspective in 8 years of GMA's reign:
Vietnam = $38.5 B
Thailand = $37.5 B
Malaysia = $35 B
statistics don't lie!
source: BSP