P-Noy’s First SONA rating: Needs Improvement

Letter to the Editor | After the 35 minute first State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Benigno  Simeon “Noynoy”  Aquino III aka P-Noy, many people from congressmen, senators, critics  and the usual man on the street find the speech wanting.

While it is good that the Aquino administration has rooted out some of the anomalies of  the Arroyo regime and exposed it to the public that is already expected and what we  need now is concrete action to address these. It is also a duty of the government to  administer fast and affordable services as well as render free social services, so it  is only fitting for this to be done at the soonest time possible.

As for the Truth Commission must really hit the ground running as soon as possible  because it has a lot of things to do and it has to jail Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo before  she gets away. Aside from this corruption is just a part of Philippine society’s  problems and though it has to be addressed the current administration should first  prioritize agrarian reform and building up basic industries because these will  alleviate the plight of at least 90% of our population and will be the key for the  country’s development. But sadly P-Noy, like in his inaugural speech did not even  mention agrarian reform in his SONA. It is quite obvious that he is avoiding the issue  because his own family is embroiled in the Hacienda Luisita land issue and they do not  want to return  the land to the farm workers.

Landlessness is still the most pressing problem in the country and even if nobody is  corrupt now, poverty will prevail due to this problem. Take Batanes for example where  people are so honest that stores are left unattended and nothing is stolen, but most of  them are still poor, because as with most farmers all over the nation they do not own  the land they till. Up till now 2 out of 3 farmers in Region 5 are landless. If this is  not addressed then no amount of anti-corruption campaigns can uplift our economy.

Weekly filing of tax evasion cases is good but more big fish has to be made an example  so that people will know that the government is indeed serious in going after tax  evaders, but it should also stop giving incentives and tax holidays to foreign  companies so that tax collection would really improve.

P-Noy should treat extra-judicial killings as a failed government policy rather than  just a simple crime-solving case. He should also take note that the cases he is crowing  about are just three cases what about the more than a thousand more that still has to  be solved. Take for example the case of Marck Francisco of Masbate and hundreds of  others here in the Bicol region. This can only be solved if the current administration  issues a categorical order stopping the killings and the culture of impunity. The  recommendations of UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston should also be implemented.

Public-Private Partnerships are not sound because in essence is that we are going to  sell or lease public property to private mostly foreign corporations or governments,  which for one thing is patently unconstitutional and will certainly disadvantage our  country’s long term interest. To be safe it must be ensured that only Philippine  companies are involved.

This should also be carefully monitored because left unchecked, this can be a source of  corruption again and it can worsen the problem it was designed to address. It is due to  the fact that its primary goal now is to make profit and it can corrode the government  agencies and officials supposed to be their partners.

While some of his legislative agenda like the fiscal responsibility bill, anti-trust  bill, whistleblower’s bill and witness protection program are welcome. We should be  wary of the national land use bill because it may just be another way for foreigners to  have 100% ownership of land here in our country, while the revised National Defense Act  may be used to curtail our rights and freedoms.

As for the peace talks, it would have been better if he did not make a demand before  starting the peace talks because it will seem to be a pre-condition and is detrimental  to confidence building measures for the talks to continue. Besides why should there be  a need for the talks to continue if there is already a nationwide ceasefire, by the way  this was also the tact taken by former President Corazon Aquino and look what happened.  What must be done here is to really address the basic needs of most Filipinos and there  would be no rebels in the first place. -- Tessa Lopez/ Public Information Officer/ Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Bikol (BAYAN-Bikol)/ Brgy.17, Legazpi City Albay