MANY, including myself, wanted to hear the 2014 SONA as much to learn about the State of Noynoy Aquino as we did about the State of the Nation.
Thus, in my hotel room in Honolulu (where I happen to be, en route to San Francisco), I waited late into the night for the online news on his report to the joint session of Congress and to the Filipino people. Seeing only a preliminary account, with just the TESDA accomplishments, using DAP funds, mentioned, I went to bed and got up again at 1:30 a.m. I finally found the entire text of Aquino’s speech online and read it in his entirety.
A perceptively chastened PNoy may have finally listened to the wiser, less combative and less self-serving of his advisers. His opening lines dealt only with what he said was achieved with the P1.6 billion that he allocated to TESDA from the DAP funds.
There was no repeat of the aggressive defensive-offensive speeches he delivered in the wake of the adverse ruling of the Supreme Court on the DAP.
At any rate, granting the importance of generating jobs for 66 percent of the 223,615 who graduated from the TESDA Training-for-Work Scholarship Program, one wonders why the funds for this has not been sufficiently provided for in the original budget appropriated by Congress for the agency.
It makes you recall the biting comment of freshman Senator Nancy Binay that certain cabinet officials of Aquino had failed in forecasting their requirements and, thus, either needed fund augmentation or needed to declare certain items as savings – such as the $549 million that Mar Roxas diverted from the DOTC that had originally been intended for the repair of NAIA One, among many other transport and communications facilities.
Because the budget was waylaid as savings, the traveling public was not saved the torment of a stinking toilet and still need to bear the inconveniences of the “worst airport in the world.”
In fairness, however, I think we should accept and appreciate the litany of accomplishments reported by the president and not play killjoy. Accomplishments are accomplishments, whether modest or awesome, and some of those enumerated were impressive, indeed.
Having acknowledged that, I also think it should be reasonable for Aquino”s “bosses”—the Filipino people—to expect him to render a report that, in a manner of speaking, presented the glass not just as half full but as half empty, as well.
As “father of the country,” as he described himself, he also should not have labeled as enemies and detractors those who have pointed out the failed or incomplete tasks of his government, as they affect the lives of the citizenry. In his speech, he branded them “orchestra ng negatibismo sa balita” (the orchestra of negativism in the news).
He went on: “Itong maiingay na ito,sadyang isinasara ang isip at namumuhay sa sariling mundo at realidad. Habang nakikita ang pagbabago sa lipunan, nangyayari na nga ang ating inasahan: lalong dumadalas, lalong umiinit, at lalong tumitindi ang pag-atake nila sa atin. Habang lumilinaw ang benepisyo ng reporma, pahirap nang pahirap ang pag-asang magtagumpay ang panlilinlang nila, kaya’t nagtatanim sila ng duda. Desperado na sila.”
(Those who are noisy are purposely closing their minds and are living in their own world and reality. As they see changes in society, what we expected is happening: the frequency and intensity of their attacks against us. As the benefits of reform become clearer, they are experiencing more difficulty in their duplicity, in their planting of seeds of doubt. They are desperate.).
But what does he expect from those who are still waiting for the government to attend to their needs? In his SONA, Aquino waxed proud of the impressive economic strides of the country and the credit upgrades it has been granted. But he made no mention at all of recent polls that show that the majority of citizens – 11.8 million in all – rated themselves poor while 8.8 million said they were “food poor,” conceivably many of them resorting to eating pagpag, or food retrieved from restaurant trash bins.
Why should he characterize that as part of the “orchestra of negativism”? Should the “padre de familia” resent a report that millions of his “children” are going hungry?
Aquino spoke proudly of the speed with which the government attended to the needs of the victims of Yolanda, even comparing that with the way the governments of Haiti and the United States handled the relief and rehabilitation of their own calamity victims.
And yet, in a story filed on June 27, just a month ago, the Philippine News Agency reported that “more than 2.6 million survivors of super typhoon Yolanda ‘remain at risk and without durable shelter’ close to eight months after the powerful storm devastated the central Philippines,” based on a report of a joint government-nongovernment organization.
And another PNA dispatch, dated June 28, carried the headline, “With storm season coming, only 8% of Samar evacuation centers usable.”
Being from Tacloban and receiving first-hand news from my relatives there of their woeful plight, I can’t help but raise an eyebrow at Aquino’s self-praise.
I think, as citizens, we have the right to demand an honest report from the president on the real state of the nation. When the public opinion polls show that the president’s approval ratings have dipped, that doesn’t mean that those who do not approve of him, or have doubts, are his enemies or constitute “orchestras of negativism” desiring only to sabotage his tenure.
For sure, Aquino did not set the pattern for making the State of the Nation Address an exercise in self-praise and self-defense rather than a truthful and candid report to the nation on issues affecting their well-being and their very lives. Past presidents of the Philippines and many heads of state in other countries have made a tradition of this process of denying reality and exaggerating achievements. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was probably the only one who “said it like it was,” when he portrayed the plight of America in his inaugural address at the height of the Great Depression.
When, in the face of the legitimate complaints of millions, the president chooses to speak only of his accomplishments and brands those who complain about their problems as detractors and virtual saboteurs, he foments discontent and distrust. It is then that he develops severe critics and even enemies.
A worthy father of his nation should have enough confident in his leadership to state, candidly, that much remains to be done, that the time for self-praise has not come and does not deserve to come until the last family is given shelter and the last child is given food and clothing and sent to school.
A worthy leader of his country should also have enough statesmanship to declare, “I may disagree with the decision of the Supreme Court on the DAP, but I acknowledge the responsibility of the honorable justices to interpret our Constitution. Having filed a motion for reconsideration, I will respect their final verdict.”
That would have given the citizenry a reassurance that all is well with the State of Noynoy Aquino.
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