E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
A desiderata on the Sona
Sunday, 07 23, 2006
Tomorrow, the President will deliver the State of the Nation Address, popularly known as the Sona. Modeled from the Monarch’s Speech from the Throne at the opening of Parliament in the United Kingdom and the US State of the Union Address, the requirement for the Sona is written in our Constitution. It is not a constitutional requirement, however, that the Sona shall be delivered under the protection of 16,000 soldiers bristling with high-powered weapons to all the more provide a “matrix of graduated responses” to those who would like to attend the Sona.
All the while, I thought the Sona is an annual resumé whereby the leadership summarizes where it has been and what it has done, so that the people, through their representatives in Congress, may be inspired, or cajoled even, to move toward certain positive directions. I thought it is an outline of the President’s legislative proposals for the coming year, a blueprint of future programs and policies. Which only shows how wrong I could be.
From what I’ve heard from insiders, tomorrow the nation will be regaled with cold statistics on the much touted economic gains, the revenue collection, and labor employment program which has given the Philippines a global reputation of being a country of cheap, exportable menial workers and caregivers. The President will summarize the marvelous accomplishments that she has achieved in leading the nation to an Enchanted Kingdom. And, surely, she will reiterate her total war policy against the “enemies of the state,” in a calculated move to soothe some ruffled feathers in the military, on whose support her tenure precariously hangs on the balance.
I do not have, however, incontrovertible insider information that she would still dwell on making this country a strong republic, as she is expected to devote some time in passionately convincing the nation about the merits of Charter change, to promote a politically stable country under a monarchical (if not dictatorial) regime.
Tomorrow, I wish the little lady with the big voice would redeem herself on that giant podium at the Batasan if she would only tell the truth about the current state of poverty, peace and order, the economy, health, education, employment; and the criminal justice system. I dearly wish that her Sona will not be peppered by the usual wish-wash, wishful thinking and policies groaning with wish fulfillment, which find realization only in the imagination, mainly through dreams and fantasies induced by the fetid vapors of the Pasig and the foul breath of her advisers. I devoutly wish that her Sona would focus on the naked reality of these problems and provide certain programs to address them. It will not do if she, instead of providing policy solutions to the basic problems that this nation faces, continues to aggrandize the situation by promoting divisiveness. Alas, she would have us believe that a change in the form of government by amending our Constitution is all it takes to promote political stability! Other than providing solutions to the basic problems, the President should first establish her moral leadership to govern. The horde of scandals that have plagued her administration as well as the legitimacy of her election hang heavily around her neck like a persistent political albatross. The people have every right to know the truth. Without clearing this cloud of doubt, she would forever be faced with a nation of citizens questioning her legal and moral right to govern. So I hope that somewhere in the Sona, she would announce a decision that she was allowing the process of impeachment to go unimpeded, welcoming it even, so that she can have a day in court to exonerate herself, and prove the doubters out there and her detractors wrong.
Adding to this wishful thinking, I hope she devotes a few words about how the nation has fared in the midst of globalization. In 1985, the World Bank, in a report ebulliently entitled The East Asian Miracle, rhapsodized: “Since 1960s, the high-performing Asian economies have grown more than twice as fast as the rest of East Asia, roughly three times as fast as Latin America and five times than the sub-Saharan Africa. They have also significantly outperformed the industrial economies.…Between 1960 and 1985, real income per capita increased more than four times in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong.” We were not mentioned among those countries, although they are our next-door neighbors. These days, isn’t just about time to play catch-up? Most governments in many countries have already dropped barriers to international commerce and business, and rushed to expand their operations to this part of Asia. Global companies, though, tend to evolve into powerful, unregulated organizations, shaping the world according to their own designs and interests while ignoring those of their host-countries. Given the growing number of global companies that have established themselves on our shores, would it be too much to hope for a policy announcement in the Sona that her government is committed to the protection of our local markets by providing safety nets and promoting a policy of selective protectionism, without necessarily disregarding our commitments under international law? In Albay, the people are experiencing hot and muggy weather, apprehensive on account of an impending eruption of the Mayon. All over the country, the people live under a hot and muggy political climate, yet they could manage to sing their travails away despite the damned-up discontent. When the eruption comes, I hope they would not have to ask the little lady, as the grasshopper of Jean de La Fontaine’s fable was asked: “Que faisiez-vous au temps chaudi? — What were you doing when the weather was hot?” To which she could probably reply: “Je chantais; ne vous deplaise — I sang; I hope you don’t mind.” I could go on, but I’m not sure you could excuse my lousy French. See you tomorrow then — and I hope you’re all ears when the lady starts to sing.
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