SONA 2015: Sixth State of the Nation Address of

PNoy
President Benigno 'PNoy' Aquino III delivered on Monday, July 27, 2015
his sixth and final State of the Nation Address (SONA). Lawmakers and
guests at Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City gave him a total of 146 rounds
of applause with the loudest on his thanksgiving and valedictory speech.
SONA 2015 has been the longest speech of Aquino on his five years in
service. It started at exactly 4:00 in the afternoon and concluded after two
hours and 15 minutes. Though he began with an apology to everyone as he
was breaking some traditions due to the fact that he was not quite feeling
well, it cannot be missed that his SONA focused more on his achievements
and blaming the previous administration of different setbacks and
corruptions allowing his administration to shine brightly in contrast to the
latter. This brought about some comments from people calling his
administration as the narcissistic government.
I remembered a lawyer friend of mine told me this right after the SONA
2015, When I will be president, I will re-style the SONA as the Symposium of
National Accountability. It will be a panel interview for 3 hours, where I will be
interrogated for 15 minutes each by 12 panelists representing 12 sectors
corresponding to the 12 agenda points in the previous year. The 12 panelists
will be chosen by their own sectors but may receive questions and inputs
from those not chosen (although only 12 will be allowed to speak during the
SONA, for an orderly proceeding). No holds barred; accountability for the
failure of the identified target gains in the previous year will be up for the
public to scrutinize. Of course, since it will be televised, the public will also
know who are the epal panelists who are just there to raise their hidden
agenda, not really that of the sectors they represent, wasting their 15
minutes on the not-so-important issues. Also, I will have all my secretaries
behind me, and they should be able to coach me on anything and everything
thrown at me (that's supposed to be their job, anyway). BUT THAT'S JUST A
DREAM, BECAUSE I WILL NEVER BE PRESIDENT.
Now thinking back to what my friend said, I had to ask myself too.
What would I say if given the opportunity to become the president and give
the SONA? Would I focus on the important points and be as transparent as
ever regardless if I was right or wrong, or would I forego it and deliver only
those that will make my image sparkling and crystal clear? The answer lies in
the priorities I would have. Let us now scrutinize how the sixth and last SONA
of our president fared in terms of transparency and being bias-free.
Clearly Pnoys priorities were to eliminate corruption which he sees as
rampant in the previous government. The moment he was done with his
apologies, Aquino immediately recalled the issues of former President Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) administration that were inherited by his
administration before his term in 2010 such as 'Hello Garci' scandal, ZTENBN deal, MWSS bonuses, Maguindanao massacre, and the NFA anomalies.
He may perhaps have a point in mentioning all those issues, though I cannot
help but notice how he skipped the part wherein he should have also

mentioned about the Mamasapano Massacre resulting in the death of our 44

fallen soldiers.
After his remarks on the errors of the previous administration, the
President proceeded with highlighting the achievements of his cabinet
members. First off, he applauded the members of his Cabinet for an excellent
job as members of his Daang Matuwid program. He showcased the
achievements of his administration in transportation and communications,
tax/revenue, labor and wages, international relations, education, budget and
finance, peace, social welfare, justice, calamity and disaster preparedness,
national security, economy, infrastructure, governance and reform.
PNoy lauded Commissioner Kim Henares for her tax reforms
mentioning the 380 cases filed against tax evaders. The collections of the
BIR also went up to P1.3 trillion and this year 2015, the BIR collection went
up to P1.5 trillion. Pres. Aquino also stated that theres a 3% average growth
in the manufacturing sector from 2001-2009 but under his administration
from 2010 to 2014, the manufacturing sector grew by 8%. The
unemployment rate of the Philippines also dropped to 6.8% last year and
considered as the lowest ever recorded in a decade.
In the field of providing for accessible education to the needy, Pres.
Aquino highlighted the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps which
now have 4.4 million beneficiaries from 786,523 in 2010. In 2008, there were
2.9 million out of school youth in the country. In 2013, only 1.2 million out of
school youth remained. On education sector, PNoy said that Alternative
Learning System helped to ensure that even indigenous peoples and street
children are not left behind. The requirements for the K to 12 programs
backlogs of 66,800 classrooms, 145,827 teachers, 73.9 million textbooks
have already been provided. For TESDA program of the government, studies
show that 71.9% of TESDA graduates found employment right away,
compared to the 28.5% recorded before.
For the healthcare in the country, PNoy reported that around 89.4
million Filipinos are already member of the Philhealth program of the national
government and beginning in 2014, the poorest 40 percent of the population
were treated in public hospitals for free. In social welfare, PNoy said that in
the Sitio Electrification program, 25,257 sitios out of 32,441 were served.
As regards the field of transportation for both air and land, ICAO lifted
the safety concerns it imposed to the Philippines in 2013. The EU Air Safety
Committee lifted the travel ban in all local carriers which means the quality
and safety measures of the countrys local airlines have improved quite well.
For the unresolved problem on Metro Rail Transit (MRT), Aquino said there are
plans of purchasing new MRT train coaches to be able to serve more people.
In the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) modernization, the
government has planned to buy 2 more C-130. There will be additional 6
landing craft utilities and 3 C-295 medium lift transport. President Aquino

also mentioned the PNPs project such as their Capability Enhancement

Program of which 2,523 patrol jeeps and 577 utility vehicles were purchased.
When it came to certain bills and legislations, Pres. PNoy expressed his
wish to pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law and his interest on the controversial
Anti-Dynasty Law which received the loudest applause from SONA
spectators. PNoy also thanked Congress and Senate for other bills and acts
such as Philippine Competition Law, Sin Tax Reform Act and Responsible
Parenthood Act. The president also thanked officials of the government for
their contributions, sacrifice and wellspring of inspiration to the nation. He
lauded Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas for his
contributions to Daang Matuwid, making it clear in his gist that he would
very likely endorse Secretary Mar Roxas to be their partys main candidate
for the Presidency in the 2016 elections.
Pres. Aquino ended his speech with a statement stating that this is just
the start of a new chapter towards a corrupt-free country. He reiterated how
the continuity of this good change lies in the hands of the Filipino people.
This, in fact, may be viewed as a challenge to the voting tradition of the
Filipino people come election time.
As I have stated earlier, the SONA 2015 is clearly the longest of all his
addresses to the nation, however I cannot help but notice that the president missed
quite a number of issues that is of import to the nation. To name a few, PNoy didn't
defend our claims against Chinas expansionism in relation to West Philippine Sea
dispute. In addition, Aquino failed to mention the issue on the Priority Development
Assistance Fund (PDAF) in which many of the politicians were involved. And as
mentioned earlier in this reaction paper, he has no words also regarding the January
25 Mamasapano operation, which left over 60 people dead including 44 police
commandos, now more popularly known as the Fallen 44. PNoy also failed to include
the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill in his SONA. The measure aims
to eliminate corruption in the bureaucracy by giving the public greater access to
government transactions and records.
These are just few of the things which he failed to address in his peoples
report last July 27. It would have been quite an enlightenment to everyone had he
actually focused more on these more important things than going into the nittygritty details of thanking everyone who were close to him for the entire duration of
his term. It would have been better had he been able to actually answer all
questions pertaining to the much needed increase in salary of all government
employees who are often underdogs of our country that does all the dirty work. But
that would be ranting on my part. As a conclusion, the SONA 2015 may have been
planned and designed to give actual reports on the achievements of the present
administration, but it also left so many loopholes and questions unanswered that
only made the people more frustrated than satisfied.