SONA

A year before Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed the presidency from deposed President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, a hill of garbage fell over a slum community in Lupang Pangako, Payatas, Quezon City killing 218 people and leaving 300 families homeless.
Lupang Pangako (Promised Land) is a misnomer for the community---it is a slum inside one of Metro Manila’s largest dumpsites and most make their living scavenging for recyclable garbage.
For her very first State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 2001, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo picked the tragedy of the year before to underscore how vastly different her presidency is going to be from her disgraced predecessor.
From a pillaged economy, GMA promised to bring the country relative prosperity. From a country ravaged by a gluttonous executive, GMA promised to raise the moral standards of government and steer bias toward the disadvantaged. From a mere “promised land”, GMA vowed to bring the country into “NIC-hood,” a sort of promised land to promise fulfilled.
A little less than two years from now GMA’s term as president will be over. By all intents and purposes the period for making transformative change is practically over. Already, the next batch of presidential hopefuls are mounting their respective campaigns for the presidency. What then has GMA got to show for it?
Seven long years from 2001, we are again back to square one. Seven years after GMA took office, we are again looking over our shoulders, waiting for the proverbial mountain of garbage to fall over our heads.
The prices of fuel, rice, and other basic commodities have gone amok resulting to 2.9 million Filipino families going hungry in the last three months, according to the latest SWS survey. To address this worsening crisis, government, according to Press Secretary Jesus Dureza, will continue implementing its targeted programs involving, so far, some P8 billion in subsidies.
But all these interventions are raising questions precisely because the government of GMA is in itself plagued by an insurmountable crisis—the of lack of credibility. Who can say that the so-called pro-poor programs do not fall prey to corruption?
In the end, GMA’s legacy can be summed up in a few words—an absolute lack of integrity. Four years after the 2004 presidential polls, GMA’s credibility remains in question. Almost every big, multi-billion peso project under her administration have been tainted with allegations of corruption---IMPSA, Diosdado Macapagal Highway, ZTE-NBN, Northrail, etc. ,etc.
Worse, GMA seems determined to use everything in her power to shield every questionable transaction from public scrutiny. No wonder a survey last December by Pulse Asia showed 42% of the people polled considered GMA “the most corrupt president in Philippine history.”
Come Monday, July 28, GMA will again deliver her SONA. Come Monday GMA will again tell us that things are really not that bad.
But will anybody be listening?