Arroyo’s last six SONAs: Truth stranger than fiction?

THE recent Pulse Asia’s Ulat ng Bayan says that of those who are aware of the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), 55 percent could not decide whether they would believe the President when she delivers her seventh SONA this afternoon. And we really couldn’t blame them.

The chief executive’s first SONA in 2001 set the tone for all the other SONAs that will come after. Her first salvo was an exercise in stretching the public’s credulity; a melodrama more appropriate for the magic realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Isabel Allende. But we insult these fictionists whose works are at least grounded in reality, for how else could one believe, without suspending brain activity, that three young boys made paper boats of their letters to the President and sent them via the Pasig River?

“A vision for the future must be rooted in the past,” the President herself had said in the 2001 SONA. Let us go back to the promises of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s last six SONAs:

2001 SONA

Read full text of 2001 State of the Nation Address here.

Election Computerization
“To reduce corruption among elective officials, we will help honest people get elected by financing the full computerization of elections. We have released two billion pesos of the needed 3.4 needed for computerization. I ask Congress to add another 500 million in the 2002 budget. Let us make the polls of May 14, 2001 the last national elections that use primitive methods of voter identification and ballot tabulation.”

Budget
“With regard to the fiscal sector, we will control the budget deficit by collecting taxes vigorously and spending money prudently. For the longer term, I ask Congress to enact a law providing for a gross income tax.”

Education
“To prepare our youth to be the next generation of knowledge workers, we will upgrade math and science teaching in basic education.”

“I want a school building in every barangay in 2004.”

“(Students) will have better paid and therefore better motivated teachers not to mention more teachers because sound fiscal management enabled us to provide a supplemental budget of 1.5 billion pesos to hire more teachers and increase their pay without increasing our deficit.”

Job Creation
There can be a million new jobs in agriculture and fisheries. Within the year, the Department of Agriculture shall begin to implement the program to generate them. We will approach this with a sense of urgency. I do not want the one million new jobs to come in the long term. I want a timetable. I want to identify accountabilities. I want milestones.

Health
“Bababa din ang presyo ng gamot. Sa loob ng isang taon hahatiin natin ang presyo ng gamot na madalas bilhin ng madla.”

Housing
“At upang maiwasan ang pag-upa na nagbabantang tumaas, tinutulungan natin na magkaroon ng sariling tahanan ang mga manggagawa at maralita. Handa na ang sampung libong tahahan sa iba’t-ibang lugar para lumipat na rito ang manggagawa at maralita. Pinondohan na rin natin ang pagtayo ng labing-walong libo pang tahanan. Taun-taon, magtatayo ng sandaang libong tirahan para sa manggagawa at limampung libong pabahay para sa higit na maralita. Nakahanda sa government financial institutions ang dalawampung bilyong piso para sa pabahay ng manggagawa.”

Basilan
“We have given the armed forces and the police the leeway to fight a treacherous and elusive enemy in Basilan. But it must end, and it will end soon, for good. The leadership of the Abu Sayyaf has started to fall. The crackdown has neutralized 130 of them. Many of them have come down from their mountains because they have been abandoned by their leaders. Itaga ninyo sa bato: tatapusin natin ito.“

2002 SONA

Read full text of 2002 State of the Nation Address here.

Criminality
“As Commander-in-Chief, I am taking a direct hand in the war against the enemies of the Republic. This was how I did it with the Abu Sayyaf, leading to the death of Abu Sabaya. This is how I will do it with the criminal gangs.”

Electricity
“In due time, we will give electric consumers the power to choose their electricity suppliers. We are giving you the power of choice.”

Strong Republic
“I led our soldiers in defeating the Abu Sayyaf. I led our government in meeting the targets we so bravely set for the welfare of our people. Now I will lead our country towards the strong republic.”

2003 SONA

Read full text of 2003 State of the Nation Address here.

Education
“Samahan niyo akong magtayo ng silid-aralan sa lahat ng paaralang lumalampas sa sandaang mag-aaral bawat silid. In that way, we can once and for all close the perennial school building gap.”

Human Rights Victims
“Hinihiling ko sa Kongreso na maglaan ng bagahi nitong pondo bilang kabayaran sa mga naging biktima ng paglabag sa karapatang pantao noong Martial Law.”

Health
“Gusto kong palawakin ang mga (programang pangkalusugan), ang murang gamot, at dapat hangarin natin na lahat ng dukha ay masakop sa PhilHealth.” And to finance the universal coverage of PhilHealth, I ask Congress to pass the bill on the indexation of sin taxes.

Election Computerization
“With full financial support to my government, the registration, counting, and transmission of votes in the May 2004 elections will be completely computerized.”

2004 SONA

Read full text of 2004 State of the Nation Address here.

Governance
“You have a government — indeed, you have a country — that cares. Your life is held more dearly than international acclaim. And you have a president who is your friend.”

“Pinapangako ko ang isang bagong direksyon: mamamayan muna. Ang taong bayan ang pinakamalaki nating yaman. Ngunit madalas, kaunti lang ang atensyon na binibigay sa kanilang pag-unlad. Di tuloy matawid ang agwat ng mayaman at mahirap. Di tuloy mapa-abot sa lahat ang biyaya ng demokrasya.”

Fiscal Reforms
“My administration will undertake reforms to raise or save P20 billion. I ask Congress to pass eight revenue measures that will collect P80 billion more.”

Water
“We will now be able to bring clean water to the entire country because during my previous term, you, Congress finally passed the Clean Water Act; because in my first days as president in 2001 I signed the Solid Waste Act; — thank you also for giving me that opportunity — and because we are reforesting our watersheds.”

Education
“We need to start early. And we need to maintain the highest educational standards. I ask Congress to legislate an extra year of studies not by adding a fifth year of high school but by standardizing what is taught in barangay day care centers.”

Bureaucratic Red Tape
“We will simplify procedures to eliminate fixers.”

“We will downsize the government, motivate excess employees to become entrepreneurs, and increase the pay of a lean and mean bureaucracy.”

“I have abolished eighty offices under the office of the president. I will abolish thirty more.”

“I ask Congress to pass a law on government re-engineering, with silver parachutes for redundant offices.”

2005 SONA

Read full text of 2005 State of the Nation Address here.

Charter Change
“The system clearly needs fundamental change, and the sooner the better. It’s time to start the great debate on Charter Change.”

Devolution
“Perhaps it’s time to take the power from the center to the countryside that feeds it.”

National Security
“In the area of national security, I urge the swift passage of an anti-terrorism law that will protect rather than subvert, enhance rather than weaken, the rights and liberties that terrorism precisely threatens with extinction.”

2006 SONA

Read full text of 2006 State of the Nation Address here.

Devolution
“Panahon nang ibalik ang kapangyarihan sa taumbayan at lalawigan.”

“We will enhance the competitive advantage of the natural “super regions-“of-the-Philippines: the North Luzon Agribusiness Quadrangle, the Metro Luzon Urban Beltway, Central Philippines, Mindanao and the Cyber Corridor.”

Agriculture
“In North Luzon, we will prioritize agribusiness investments. The agricultural and fisheries potential of the Cordilleras, Ilocandia, and Cagayan Valley can feed Luzon affordably. And nearness to North Asia holds the rich promise of agricultural exports and tourism.”

Energy
“We will expand President Ramos’s flagship San Roque Multipurpose Dam with the massive Agno River Project. Another major project is the Banaoang Irrigation.”

Global Competitiveness
“To be world-class we invest in five comprehensive strategies for global competitiveness:

1. Make food plentiful and affordable to keep our labor cost globally competitive.
2. Reduce the cost of electricity to make our factories regionally competitive.
3. Modernize infrastructure at least cost to efficiently transport goods and people.
4. Mobilize, upgrade and disseminate knowledge and technologies for productivity.
5. Reduce red tape in all agencies to cut business costs.”

Transportation
“Upang ibsan ang pagod ng mga empleyadong namamasahe sa trapiko sa Kalakhang Maynila, mangangapital tayo sa mga expressway at tren.”

Extra-Judicial Killings
“In the harshest possible terms I condemn political killings. We together stopped judicial executions with the abolition of the death penalty. We urge witnesses to come forward. Together we will stop extra-judicial executions.”