Pre-SONA 2006

July 24, 2006 is the day Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will give her State of the Nation Address (SONA). It has definitely been a tumultuous year for Arroyo and the rest of the Philippines.

Let’s review some of the notable events from August 2005 – July 2006:

the Fertilizer Fund Scam was revealed

the controversial Venable LPP hiring

the adoption of the House Justice Committee Report on the impeachment cases filed against Arroyo which was preceded by numerous privilege hours by opposition congressmen

implementation of RA 9337

implementation and the declaration of unconstitutionality of EO 464

the re-surfacing of former COMELEC Commissioner Garcilliano

Mike Defensor’s futile efforts to discredit the so-called Garci Tapes

the continued exodus of Filipino nurses

the TRO on the PCIJ blog

the escape and re-capture of Magdalo members

the Camp Aguinaldo stand-off

the declaration of State of National Emergency

the arrest of Rep. Crispin Beltran and the attempt to arrest the “Batasan 5″

the commutation of all death sentences

the delayed and incomplete release of LGU’s IRAs

the death of numerous journalists

the warantless arrest, death and disappearance of countless of people perceived or known to be anti-Arroyo

re-filing of impeachment cases against Arroyo

all-out war against communists and terrorists

the alleged “bribing” of the CBCP

These are just some of the events and issues that she has to address on Monday. Simply ignoring these will not do. Her ratings are dropping and the country is nowhere near tip-top shape.

After her endless press releases thanking “tax reforms” for the strengthening peso, the exchange rate is now back to PhP52:$1. The public education system is still in shambles, the poor are still poor, the homeless and hungry, still homeless and hungry. The Philippine environment is being peddled to the highest bidder. Graduates are forced to work abroad, be underemployed, or unemployed. Crime is still rampant. Development is still elusive to those who live far from Metro Manila.

That is the real state of the nation.

One Response to “Pre-SONA 2006”

1. JDEspaldon says:

   August 17, 2006 at 1:00 am

   When I read the report of Amnesty International that there were “114 [ONE HUNDRED FOURTEEN!] left-wing political and human rights activists, trade union leaders, lawyers, journalists, religious leaders and judges killed over the past five years” under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, more than the lawlessness and lack of justice I am more scared by the apathy we show. The number is not just statistics. They represent dead individuals. They may be militants but they are human beings just like us. They too have families, spouses, children, relatives and friends. They too have dreams. In fact, their dreams may be bigger than perhaps most of us hold because they dream for a better country and not just for the betterment of themselves or their families. They did not plan of immigrating to another country and abandoning us to our sorry plight. They were in our country through thick and thin and they loved our motherland that they died in it without remorse or regret.

   When we become inure to the deaths of these human beings just like we do to the staggered increases of fuel prices, soon we will tolerate deaths in the streets as long as the person killed is a militant or an activist. I hope that this should never be our attitude in the future. Do we ever consider what would happen if all militants were killed and another group earned the ire of the killers, would the same fate confront that other group? And when that happens what would be our reaction? How about if we happen to belong to that new group subject of the killers’ ire? Would a stranger cry over our death? Would anyone dare avenge our deaths? Or we would just be a part of the rising statistics in the report of the Amnesty International?

   Death indeed does not scare as long as it does not knock on our door; in the same manner that we easily forget outrageous deaths for the most trivial reason: remember ULTRA tragedy?

   Slowly but without knowing it, we may already be ruled by a dictator because of our apathy. American educator Robert Maynard Hutchins once said that “the death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”

   We must never complain about injustice if we do not know how to fight for our rights.