I despise politics. As much as possible, I stay away from it whenever I can. I never engage in political discussions that almost always end up in arguments, but I try to keep myself informed as much as possible.
While I was of two minds about watching President Benigno Aqunio III’s very first State of the Nation’s Address yesterday, I’m not particularly sorry that work made me miss it. Even days before his report of his accomplishments a year after winning the 2010 Presidential elections with a landslide mandate, I knew what to expect.
From the news tidbits that I was able to watch last night, it turned out I was right. As in his previous speaking engagements, the president yakked about his predecessor, former President and now Pampanga legislator Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Now, don’t get me wrong. While I’m no P-noy fan, I’m no GMA puppy either. The president is right about GMA committing heinous crimes against our people and she must be brought to justice for all her transgressions. I have no interest in defending her.
Instead of yapping on and on about GMA and her discrepancies, I wish the president elaborated more on his own accomplishments and plans. His administration had been blaming the press for its interest in his public life than in his program. He should have used his SONA to his advantage by enumerating whatever it was that he did in his first year as the sitting president. All eyes (and ears) were on him, but he opted to share the limelight with GMA.
With all due respect, Mr. President, the entire Philippine population already knows the sins GMA committed against the people. There’s no need for you to remind us of that fact.
What we (or at least I) wanted to know was what you have actually accomplished this past year. In your inaugural speech, you vowed to fight poverty and corruption. I am wont to believe you’ve gained grounds on the latter, with your allies in congress busy running after GMA and her cronies. But what about your anti-poverty program? Have you done anything to stop the escalating fuel prices, improve the quality of education, protect human rights?
I do not expect you to have solved the country’s problems in just one year. They are just too great for any administration to surmount. But I do expect some progress, however little they may be.
It seems that you are already prejudging GMA. All of the trials in the congress and senate are all publicity stunts. No concrete evidences were being presented linking her to all alleged crime committed against the peoiple. If you were an impartial observer and a keen one you try to analyze these things. From 2004 the script of the opposition then consisted of the following.