Alleba Politics

On the President’s SONA

July 29th, 2004 at 3:57 pm (General)

LAND REFORM(?)
In the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s (PDI) article (”After Angelo, deficit next“, July 27, 2004, p. A8) on President Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), they cited Pres. Arroyo’s plan of “implementing land reform which would allow farmers to use their land and squatters their lots as collateral.” This idea/plan is unfair to the actual owners of the lots that would be used by the squatters as collateral. If, in case, the squatter will not pay for his loan, it would not actually be him who would be losing something but the actual owner of the lot. This is would only encourage the squatters to squat somewhere else and lend some more. If a person borrows money using another person’s property as collateral, there is a great possibility that that person would not be motivated to pay for that money. Although I am all for social justice, I do not think that land owners’ rights should be stripped away from them to compensate for the government’s lack of capability to provide ample land to those who need it.

MINDANAO
Another thing that bothered me in the President’s SONA is her intentional or unintentional ommission of Mindanao. Admittedly, I think that the President has over-used and abused enough her “war on terror” stance, but I am one with Senator Pimintel in being disappointed that nothing was said about working for peace in Mindanao. More perplexing is the fact that there was nothing about the economic progress and development of Mindanao, which, if I might say, was hampered by the negative publicity brought about by her “war on terrorism.” Mindanao, I dare say, has been the unwilling “ghetto” of the Philippines. We are known for nothing but the war, kidnappings, lack of progress. HELL! Some poeple think there’s no electricity in Mindanao.

ENVIRONMENT
The most disappointing thing about the SONA was that it ignored environmental issues and concerns. Am I suppossed to dance in glee and jump for joy that she at least mentioned the pending passage of the Clean Water Act in the Congress an the approval of the Solid Waste Management Act??? The keyword here is “mentioned.” She did not even elaborate, did not explain, did not commit to see that the afore-mentioned bills/laws are properly enforced. What about biodiversity conservation, corporate responsibility, the implementation of the Clean Air Act (or lack thereof)?

The President focused on the fiscal deficit, budget, taxes, money, money, money!!! It seemed like money is the only thing that can save this country. What about national pride? What about moral reformation? What about changing the political values and attitudes?

And, oh, of course there was the pabida of the “Angelo dela Cruz” situation. Which she used to say that the Philippines has no policy of sacrificing lives. Why did we join in the war, then???

If there was one thing about the SONA that I liked, it is that it was short enough to be boring.

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