Counter-SONA: Arroyo weighed and found wanting

President Arroyo gave a "fairy tale" and "horror story" when she delivered her State of the Nation Address (SONA) before Congress last Monday, Sen. Edgardo Angara said yesterday.

"The true state of the nation is one of despair and poverty and not a strong Republic built on President Arroyo’s fantasy world and failed leadership," Angara said in delivering the opposition’s Counter-SONA which he titled "Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang (You were weighed and found wanting)."

He took the title from a nationally acclaimed movie directed by the late Lino Brocka, emphasizing his points with the use of audio-visual aids.

Angara said listening to the President’s claims in her SONA would lead one to believe that she was referring to another country.

"Who would believe Mrs. Arroyo if the national coffers are empty, the people are hungry, criminals are everywhere, public debt has ballooned and our countrymen are suffering more?" Angara asked.

He maintained that the claimed accomplishments of the Arroyo administration were mere fiction. The horror story of the SONA, he said, could be gleaned from the anomalous contracts with independent power producers, the smuggling of rice, proliferation of jueteng and the raiding of opposition ranks by Malacañang.

Debunking the President’s statistics, Angara said the "cruel reality" is that some 32 million Filipinos live on P23 a day, and the average income of a Filipino family of six is only P4,000 a month.

"Electric rates are so high that eight percent of the monthly income of a poor family goes to electric bills. Water rates have gone up by 150 percent and there is a pending petition to double the already high rates," he added.

He said malnutrition besets one in every three Filipino children aged 10 years and younger.

"One out of five Filipinos wants to leave the country; 2,670 leave the country daily to work overseas," he lamented.

Angara proposed an eight-point reform agenda "to counter the drift, reverse the free-falling economy, arrest mass poverty and provide the Arroyo administration with a roadmap on good governance."

The reform agenda, according to Angara, should start with consumer protection which include the passage of a law that will cut the purchased power adjustment and provide a lasting, comprehensive solution to the high cost of electricity in the country.

"There is also a need to investigate the high water rates in the country and find a way to bring down water costs," Angara added. "Consumer protection should also involve bringing down the high cost of medicines in the country."

He identified the second item in the reform agenda as the enhanced global competitiveness of local industries. Under this item, he proposed the establishment of regional and provincial one-step shops to help small and medium-scale industries.

"There should be more funds for research and development. Dying industries like garments and shoe industries should be helped," Angara stressed.

The third item in Angara’s reform agenda is the promotion of agriculture and rural development; the fourth is the improvement of the country’s fiscal position and the fifth, political, administrative and constitutional reforms.

The sixth item, according to Angara, is the improvement of peace and order and national security.

"The cleanup of the police, the recruitment of better officers and improved training and retraining should also be carried out under this item in the agenda," he proposed.

Genuine social reforms and the full development of Mindanao are the seventh and eighth in the opposition’s reform agenda.

"The reform agenda provides both short and long-term solutions to our most pressing problems. It provides a national direction, a lasting sense of national purpose," Angara said.