SOME Filipino bloggers did not mince words, as they blogged about the recent State of the Nation Address of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Former journalist Anton DeLeon’s Slap Happy was not very happy about Arroyo’s speech. He writes:
Things are not definitely getting better. Seriously, if things were booming and zooming and talk of all this economic activity was real then i wouldn’t be holed up here in Dubai, of all places, if the prospects of all economic progress are pointing to the Philippines.
DeLeon is currently working in Dubai as a media executive. He continues:
Noted as one of the least applauded speeches of Arroyo, the statement of a “President being as strong as she wants to be” did not appeal to my fancy. I actually found it uh…droll.
However, i do agree with the proposals for the anti-terrorism law, which i think should be neatly put in place and all that needs to be done should be done.
And to summarize what i thought of during the hour long speech; i was looking forward to hearing something different–specifics– and not the usual vision, mission, expectations we get every SONA. I am just too tired of it.
Coming from someone who just left the government for better things elsewhere, i am really just too tired of it.
Fellow journalist and blogger Manuel Quezon III cited Pinoy bloggers who made interesting comments about the Sona.
Quezon found Philippine Science High School teacher Martin Perez’ blog entry at Akomismo noteworthy.
Perez writes:
Last year, the President debuted the ambitious “Super Regions” infrastructure framework. This year she takes it ten steps further by bannering a new ideal — that we become a first world country in 20 years. And in her speech today, she outlines how she plans to contribute to that vision in her last three years.
While I can’t comment fully on the speech yet due to obvious reasons, I also wouldn’t want to say how unrealistic her vision is. Everyone deserves the chance to dream. However, I would like to raise an important point made by the Inquirer’s editorial today — that our country needs a leader, not a manager. We don’t need just a checklist of accomplishments and goals; we need a direction, a vision and a dream. PGMA may dream all she will, but to get our people sold on that dream is another matter. Having our people believe in her and work with her on this requires the talents and charisma of a leader that this manager of a President has yet to or may never even become. How she attempts to do this in the SONA will be one thing I’m looking out for.
Quezon then went on to link to an exercise Perez conducted in his class. He later posted the result in an entry, titled “What my students taught me about the Sona.”
Tingog.com lists 10 key highlights in the Sona. One highlight says:
The last part of her speech was full of hidden clues, agendas, and wink wink type of sentences. She said, “They say the campaign for the next election started on May 15, the day after the last. Fine. I stand in the way of no one’s ambition. I only ask that no one stand in the way of the people’s well being and the nation’s progress. The time for facing off is over. The time is here for facing forward to a better future our people so desperately want and richly deserve. Uulitin ko: Hindi ako sagabal sa ambisyon ninuman. But make no mistake. I will not stand idly when anyone gets in the way of the national interest and tries to block the national vision. From where I sit, I can tell you, a President is always as strong as she wants to be.”
From the Bayanihan Blog Network, Sasha adds:
I get the feeling that the SONA here in the Philippines is much more closely watched by its citizens than in other countries. That’s because for both the administration and opposition—and their supporters—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s annual speech determines the points and issues to argue over. Which usually boils down to question of whether the Philippines has improved under her direction.
What struck me, however, was the observation made by Quezon. He says,
Body language says a lot. The President looked tired and drawn when she arrived at the Batasan; keeping control of things that day obviously wasn’t easy. Compared to last year’s triumphalist, even gleeful, delivery, she seemed to falter and stumble over the words a lot. And despite name-dropping like crazy, she garnered less applause than last year: and it was the loyal NBN people who did the counting, mind you.
August 17th, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Glad to see some bloggers wanting to give Gloria a chance to finish her projects until she finishes in 2010 .Where i have come from the infrastructure are everywhere never before seen from the reign of past presidents. The phil have never been a progressive country but at least now we have emerged from above sea level. In this country hardly anyone appreciates the good motive of an executive officer no matter what she does for the country. You cannot please everybody. Come to think of it she cannot feed the whole 82 million filipinos all by herself. No matter how we pray for our success if we do not help ourselves God will not heed to our call.
August 10th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
Roilo Golez, if you are the reali Roilo Golez…brader..you really sound like you are a lousy loser opposition…and if your not the real roilo golez…time to change idol brader hehehehehe
like what claueh said in his blog..and i quote ¨Can you just shut up there and HELP our government on its projects…¨
ITo ang pinakamagandang gawin ng lahat….!!!
August 5th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
hello ganda ng prommises nyo ha pero sana naman lahat ng yan ay matupad
August 5th, 2007 at 12:23 am
To: pervagus again
If we are a nation of crabs, at least some of us are not blind crabs. Strange that we can’t see the progress, and you did not the crimes.
August 5th, 2007 at 12:11 am
To: pervagus
So horrendous crimes committed forgiven in the name of imaginary ‘real accomplishments’ cum progress that’s not been there.
August 3rd, 2007 at 5:51 pm
i usually enjoy just reading their salient points. and better yet, i would love to see the absolute link between quoted stats and real scenarios.
July 29th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
As usual the contemptuous elements have once more crawled out from the under the rocks to spew their standard anti-PGMA drivel. It is so typical of an unbalanced media community to make it appear that a contrived majority has nothing positive to say about this government regardless of any real accomplishments. Truly a nation of crabs that holds back anything and everything that speaks of progress and depicts this country as hopeless. Pitiful.
July 29th, 2007 at 10:55 am
Duh!
Enough, guys! Let’s just wait for 2010! Besides, PGMA is trying her very best for our country’s welfare.
It’s not that EaSY to be the chief executive!
Can you just shut up there and HELP our government on its projects…
July 28th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
GMA’s 2007 sona was quite impressive, different from last year which was all promises & visions.Now it’s all accomplishments with facts and some still to be finished. Let’s give her the last chance, and our prayers.It’s her last term!
July 27th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
* some bloggers say people in congress are just kissing gloria’s a$$ when they applauded in the past SONAs. now they take it against gloria that she got less applauds than last year. not only are these conflicting statements, but these are also non sequiturs.
* that person in dubai. why are you still there in dubai? a shipyard in subic is looking for 15,000 plus workers.
* on we need a leader than a manager… do we define a leader now who can sell his direction/vision/dream to the people? so you consider erap’s first SONA better than GMA’s SONA? admit it, GMA’s SONA is waaaaaaay better than ERAP’s not to mention the achievements.
* READ the SONA again, go to the places mentioned there and see if she is really telling the truth.. the government is doing the best it can to move us forward.
July 26th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
What is the problem? That the Super-Economist President does not much know of real economy, at least as leader of a country?
That PGMA tells what she like to see, or what ghost writers put into her mouth?
The only real matter is “a country has that leader it deserves”, because it has elected him/her or allowed to win by cheat. No reason to cty.
July 26th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
[...] Blog Addicts : Pinoy bloggers and the Sona [...]
July 26th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Whatever the content of that SONA is, what important is our participation…Start with Ourselves…Our government has its own problems to solve,let us just assure to ourselves that we Our not those problems..
LET US HELP ONE ANOTHER FOR A STRONG REPUBLIC!!!!!
July 26th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Don’t be a bunch of doom sayers. We will always have our poor with us, such as what Jesus said in his time. It is up to us to uplift ourselves and start uniting as one instead of griping and bringing down whoever is in power. granted there are some who really did the economy bad, but GMA is really hardworking and admit it, who is not corrupt? Or better still, aren’t all elected officials going to get kickbacks? All of them, but the question is that GMA works hard to do the Filipinos a better chance to be economically better off with what she has been doing. No, I don’t have any political affiliations, if you’re wondering,just plain old me. Unlike some politicians past talagang garapalan, she is not. What can you do with a population of 80 million today compared to 20 million then? More mouths to feed, resources stretched to the limit, a fragmented society? Maybe what we need is a cataclysmic wake up call to open the eyes of all the Filipinos and make them aware that we are better off than some countries who initially thought they took the right course in electing a 180 degree turnaround type of politician to the one they had with disastrous consequences. Look at the history of Africa before and after independence, (talk of nationalism in these settings!) See China after the cultural revolution (before mixed capitalism) came to them, see Vietnam ,before embracing capitalism).See/read other Asian countries’ histories. Palibhasa mahina kayo sa history nyo. I- review nyo ang regimes na crying out for drastic change and what did they get? Worse leaders than those that they replaced!No kidding, read it. I just wrote this because im sick and tired of reading all your griping out there, please, just do your stuff and stop making waves because we are all in the same boat or we will sink together!T.Y.
July 26th, 2007 at 3:16 am
SAME OLD CRAP FROM THE CHEAT.
July 25th, 2007 at 11:04 am
SONAs can be pretty boring for me and it does take a lot of effort for me to understand what’s really being said (after all, it is an hour’s worth of speech). That’s why I’m happy that there are bloggers out there who have shared their thoughts and the major points of the SONA.