A prelude to the President's final SONA

These thoughts are being written on the weekend prior to the President’s final State of the Nation Address (SONA)—thus purely speculative. By the time the reader reads this, s/he may already have heard or read the speech itself…

Past Philippine presidents have focused their final SONAs on achievements, legacies, and remaining tasks. Except for former President Joseph Estrada, who was cut off mid-way by EDSA II and a graft conviction. He talked specifically about the Mindanao peace process in his third SONA. Past presidents mainly showed the latest situation of the political economy in their respective contexts and how their programs affected it.

In 1998, former President Fidel V. Ramos underscored a 6.8 % Gross National Product, per capita income of P48,200, a stable 4.6% inflation rate, 1.5 million jobs generated, and reduced poverty and infant mortality that he attributed to deregulation, investment liberalization, and agrarian reform policies.

Similarly, former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo noted that the country was able to weather a 2008 global economic crisis because of a strong economy developed through key government reforms, including “putting people first” and introducing new revenue measures.

If his previous SONA scripts are any indication, President Benigno S. Aquino III is expected to make a similar presentation—most likely giving primacy to indicators that the country is achieving inclusive growth through government’s adherence to “daang matuwid,” or good governance, and anti-corruption efforts. It is certainly a valid claim—ratified by international ratings on both counts. Politically, with a presidential election year coming and a popular opponent—who is facing graft and corruption problems of his own—scheduled to give a “Contra-SONA,” we can expect a significant amount of nay-saying, specific counter examples and probably some open accusations of hypocrisy. Our job, as body politic, will be to sort out fact from spin and attempt to judge our coming choice of candidate with care. Each of us will decide how valid—in terms of the country’s welfare—the various claims are. 

Militants from different groups marching along the stretch of Commonwealth Avenue to Batasang Pambansa in protest of Pres. Aquino's 2014 State of the Nation Address. Philstar file photo

Among a range of Leftist civil society organizations, different interpretation of the SONA will already have emerged. Full of caricatures and gross simplifications designed to gin up the resentments and prejudices of their constituents, they will no doubt rehash the same charges of inutility and cruelty, seeing the president as no less than the incarnation of the devil himself. Instead of achievements and legacies, they will argue that not only has there been no significant change in the country in the last 5 years, but that the country has reverted back to the darkest of feudal ages. They will truck in the usual charges—that the Aquino administration has failed to address poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses—and they will have no trouble giving examples of failure in each area. While we all know the administration has been less than perfect, we also know that the existence of such cases does not necessarily mean there has been “no significant change.” In fact, there is ample evidence to suggest otherwise. Recently, for instance, government has been generally perceived to be less corrupt with a ranking of 85 out of 175 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. More importantly, the Human Rights Victims Reparation and Recognition Law was passed in 2013 for the benefit of Martial Law victims—a landmark achievement.

Likewise, were the country’s indigenous peoples to issue a “State of the Indigenous Peoples’ Address,” it would most likely assert that government has failed to protect them from mining and plantation encroachment in ancestral domains, in addition to militarization, and human rights violations. Specific to this administration, they might point out that a simple joint administrative order has made the recognition of their ancestral domain claims even more complicated and cumbersome.

Without doubt, the Aquino administration continues to face challenges, understandable in light of the fact that we are far from living in a political utopia.

The government in general comes under heavy criticism for having no convictions on the Maguindanao massacre cases, even after all this time. It is certainly a source of concern that a high-profile mass-murder case takes longer than a president’s entire term to complete. However, under our system of division of powers, the Executive has already done as much as it can. The body of law passed by the Legislative and the court procedures underwritten by the Judicial branch are what lawyers are now using to delay the case.

More firmly in the president’s lap are the accusations of slow response to both the MNLF conflict in Zamboanga City and—on a much larger scale—to Super-typhoon Yolanda. But these cases have not exactly been swept under the rug. In fact, progress in both military and disaster response capability has been noteworthy.

But the most flak has come from the Mamasapano tragedy. One problem is that the President has never clearly explained how suspended Police Chief Alan Purisima came to supervise—rather than merely be consulted on—the covert operation. More personally, the President has been lambasted for not apologizing and for not admitting his own responsibility in the death of 44 SAF operatives and 17 MILF combatants. Still, it should be noted that, thus far, government has provided financial and livelihood assistance to the families of the fallen 44 and has also conducted several investigations to get to the bottom of the issue.

From a governance perspective, the President is seen by most to be honest and clean. His detractors, however, contend that his administration applies a double standard—that he ran after members of the opposition, like former President Arroyo, former Chief Justice Renato Corona, former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, and Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla—for corruption, while retaining such close allies such as Budget Secretary Butch Abad and Agriculture Secretary Proseso Alcala. Former Police Chief Purisima would also be gracing that list, were he not already dismissed for cause and facing charges from the Ombudsman—a move the Palace has announced it approves.

Many argue that the President has been slow in firing erring appointees. Extreme loyalty is clearly a PNoy—as well as a Pinoy—characteristic. But he has, in fact, accepted the resignations of officials, up to, and including, Cabinet members. He has just been somewhat slow in doing so. But in some cases, I consider that wise. For instance, many impute dishonesty to Butch Abad over the DAP funding process, “even after it was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.” Well, what actually happened with the SC is discussed in detail in a previous column (http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2015/02/23/1426576/dap-and-politics-budgeting), but ultimately the Court impugned no dishonesty to anyone in the administration; constitutional points were clarified and corrective legislation passed.

A 7.2% GDP growth in 2013 and an average of 6.9% is still the biggest boon in the economy compared to past administrations. Efforts are already actively being made to improve our investment climate to ease the cost and process of doing business, in the interests of attracting the private sector. Still, our taipans need to be convinced to help create more and better quality jobs. And despite improved R&D in some areas, Wi-fi speed remains incorrigibly slow. But poverty levels have gone down from  27.9% in 2012 to 25.8% in 2014. Now, if only poverty can be reduced in tandem with economic gains—and if the 700,000 hectares of agricultural land still in the hands of big landowners can still be distributed to landless farmers and farm workers--perhaps inclusive growth may still be achieved.

The administration has also made significant strides in human development and social protection. The Department of Education, for instance, has provided free education in all public elementary and high schools all over the country and is set to fully implement its K-12 Program. The Department of Health has made PhilHealth more accessible to the public, was able to expand its coverage of medical services, and has even provided it for free to all senior citizens.

At the same time, the Department of Social Welfare and Development has provided conditional cash transfers to more than 4 million poor households to provide children a chance to go to school and finish basic education, and for poor families to receive medical services.

And in the foreign policy front, despite a relatively weak military force, our government has still been able to send a firm message to the Chinese government that we’re not about to give up our claims in the West Philippine Sea. However, host countries have yet to be satisfactorily dealt with in terms of their violations of OFW rights.

My personal assessment here was reinforced by a recent pre-SONA Facebook posting by scholar Dr Jose Gatmaitan “Toots” Albert of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies.

“Three things are very clear to me that government has good marks on,” he said. “a.) spending better for social sector—DepED, DOH, and the CCT of DSWD—which have some positive outcomes already and for sure will have many more returns in the long run; b.) changing the investment grade status of the country and improving the perception of corruption; and c.) standing up to China.”

By any standard, the Aquino government has been a marked improvement over its predecessors. While some of its promises are yet to be realized, it has nonetheless made great strides in various areas—such as the passage of the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law and the Philippine Competition Act—and has significantly improved the country’s credit rating and investment grade. It has set an impressive threshold for succeeding administrations to aspire to. Despite the many criticisms it has received, my belief is that this is an administration whose accomplishments will have long and deep effects on the lives of every Filipino, and whose advances towards good governance will be emulated by many for years to come.