A message of hope

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s latest State of the Nation Address (SONA) is a message of hope for all Filipinos. It is message that oozes with accomplished goals and optimism for the future.

A year back, many were skeptical about how a president — elevated through people power and with no clear mandate — can make a difference in a country wracked in poverty, crime and political instability. However, Gloria Arroyo, in a move past presidents never did, established clear and measurable goals in her SONA last year. Her report to Congress this year showed a government with political will, a government that delivers on its promises.

Admittedly, PHILIPPINES TODAY, like most media entities, shared in this skepticism. In our August 2001 editorial in response to Arroyo’s first SONA, we took notice of the usual promises that presidents trumpet and exceedingly fail to fulfill. We took notice of the rallies and demonstrations that mar the SONA each year as an indication of government’s inutility and the poor’s continuing slide towards hopelessness and despair. We took notice of the Filipino diaspora that persists because our skilled hands and great minds back home are unemployed or underemployed.

Last year, we only had one message for the president: Show, not tell!

This year, Gloria Arroyo outdid herself and shamed her detractors. Arroyo is not just hot air after all. Among her accomplishments that are worth mentioning are as follows:

Target: 200,000 ha. of land for land reform; accomplished: 250,000 ha.;
Target: 20 billion pesos for agricultural modernization; accomplished: 24 billion;
Target: 150,000 land titles for the urban poor; accomplished: 180,000;
Target: 150,000 homes for the homeless; accomplished: 150,000;
Target: 1,000 rolling stores to sell rice at PhP 14 per kilo; accomplished: 1,500 rolling stores;
Target: to cut by half the cost of the most common medicines bought by the poor; accomplished: cheap and affordable drugs can be bought from 80 government hospitals and UNILAB outlets nationwide;
Target: health insurance for 500,000 indigents; accomplished: 4 million;
Target: schools for 1,612 baranggays by 2004; accomplished: 1,005 plus 285 school buildings;
Target: textbooks for grades 1 to 4 and 1st and 2nd year high school; accomplished: 54 million books for 16 million students;
Target: more teachers; accomplished: 15,000 new mentors;
Target: work for 20,000 out-of-school youth; accomplished: 30,000 jobs for out-of-school youth.

Arroyo described this as just the tip of her accomplishments, all done in the first year of her projected 10-year fight against poverty. In her pitch for a strong republic, she said: “A strong republic does what it says. It takes care of the people and takes care of their future.”

In response to her SONA, the latest survey has showed that Arroyo’s approval rating has doubled since last year and those who disapproved of her performance dropped from 38 to 29 percent. Another recent nationwide survey revealed that 74 percent of the respondents were “very proud” to be Filipinos.

There is indeed reason to be proud, as one widely-circulated email prompts its recipients. This email outlines the numerous multinational companies that have set up shop in our shores, among them Intel, Toshiba, Trend Micro, Texas Instruments, America Online, Proctor and Gamble, Citibank and Ford. It also lists developments since 1995, such as the phenomenal growth of the telecommunications industry, the construction of flyovers and skyscrapers, the excellent quality of national roads that reach even to the remotest regions, and the 600 percent increase in Philippine exports.

Gloria Arroyo has once again set goals for herself in this year’s SONA. Among them is the fight against corruption, which has “weakened the flow of investments into the country.” The specter of malfeasance that hovers over government offices is one of the primary excuses foreign investors make in bringing their capital elsewhere.

She also has fighting words against kidnap-for-ransom gangs, terrorists, drug dealers and criminal syndicates, as well as a firm resolve to bring down power costs. And as far as overseas Filipinos are concerned, she has promised to pass the Absentee Voting Bill as well as a “bill that will give equal respect and recognition to the overseas Filipino's dual citizenship.”

While we are impressed with the President’s record this year, we remain vigilant over her administration’s resolve to achieve social justice as her contribution towards building a strong republic. For one, the numbers in this year’s SONA may not be totally accurate, and her promise last year to create a million jobs remains unfulfilled.

As the overseas Filipino views his country from a land not his own, he prays that Gloria Arroyo will do her father and her country proud, and that all this is not just political pantomime in preparation for the 2004 polls. While we feel that the Philippines is in the right direction, we reiterate the same message that we sent the President last year.

Show, not tell. *

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You may email the author at butch@philippinestoday.net