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Monday, July 28, 2003
Nalzaro: Sona and mutiny threat
By BOBBY G. NALZARO
Today, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will deliver her State of the Nation Address (Sona), coinciding with the opening of Congress and amid threats of mutiny staged by disgruntled junior officers of the Armed Forces. This is her third Sona since she assumed power last January 2001, following the historic second people power.
As I pounded this piece a few hours before the 5 p.m. ultimatum given by President Arroyo, the mutineers are still holed up in a hotel in Makati City. Negotiations were still underway for the peaceful resolution of the standoff. No shot has been fired so far since the mutiny started early dawn yesterday.
The chief executive is expected to lay down her legislative agenda for the remaining 11 months before her term will expire on June next year. That is, if she will stick to her promise not to run. But in the event that she will change her mind and participate in next year’s presidential elections, there is also no guarantee that she will win.
Though, she has the advantage among other aspirants because she is still the President by then and she can use and dispose government resources to boost her political stocks. The military and police and even the Commission on Elections (Comelec) will still be under her control.
Aside from laying down her plans and programs, today’s Sona will also give the President the opportunity to report to the whole nation about her accomplishments and achievements for the past year. That is if there are any.
Some political pundits have predicted that Arroyo’s Sona could possibly be a rehash of her previous Sonas. Again, it is all promises and nothing concrete has been achieved. The chief executive received a standing ovation for her Sona last year when she presented three kids from Payatas who were supposed to be example-beneficiaries of her economic recovery program.
The three kids, whose families were all victims of the Payatas tragedy, sent the President ‘bangkang papel’ (paper boats) where they wrote their appeal to the President to give them decent homes and send them to school.
Indeed, Ms. Arroyo granted the children’s request. They were taken to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and given scholarship programs through a nongovernment organization. But the NGO handling the program later disbanded because of controversies and the children were forced to drop out of the scholarship program.
In her last year’s Sona, the chief executive reiterated her priority programs, especially on uplifting the economic condition of the masses. These programs aim to put food in every household, ensure affordable foodstuff, medicines and solve the unemployment problem by creating more job opportunities.
The President also promised to solve the problems in our educational system, including the lack of classrooms, school buildings and teachers. The modernization of our Armed Forces and the police force, computerization of the Comelec were likewise mentioned in her two Sonas.
She then asked Congress to support the realization of her legislative agenda. It has been a year but I don’t know if there are Malacañang-sponsored bills approved by Congress, and if there are, how many.
Perhaps there were approved bills that were in consonance with her Sona last year. But how many have been fully implemented and realized? Today, we will witness another Sona, perhaps President Arroyo’s last. But even if her Sona would last for several hours, can we expect her plan of action to be fully implemented when she has only more or less 11 months before her term will expire?
Wala man gani matuman sa tulo ka tuig sukad siyang milingkod, karon pa kaha nga usa ka tuig nalang ang nahibilin. |
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