Letter to the Editor — GMA's SONA: Nothing but a bread and circus speech

SONA of bread and circuses.

This was how we, the Alternative Law Groups described President Arroyo's recent State of the Nation Address which was no different from a traditional politician's speech blabbering palliatives in a desperate attempt to quell the public's growing discontent over her leadership that has worsened socio-economic disparities between the privileged few and the majority of poor and marginalized sectors of society.

Nowhere in the 86-paragraph SONA did GMA mention the need to continuously address social justice and social reform issues affecting the basic and marginalized sectors of society. In a classic but flawed trickle-down approach to addressing poverty, GMA's SONA, possibly the worst of all her six SONAs, merely enumerated the need for new ports, airports, windmills, highways and roads, post harvest support and other infrastructure upgrading, as if these were the panacea to poverty.

ALG lawyers said GMA's SONA contained a lot of "fallacious reasoning" meant to obscure her failed leadership and highlight here scanty and precarious accomplishments in addressing the growing inequity in the distribution of the country's wealth and resources.

GMA mentioned in her SONA that an aging former member of the Cordillera People's Liberation Army was finally awarded a title to his land after 20 years of waiting. But did GMA said anything on how to address problems in the 18-year-old agrarian reform program which up to now has failed to redistribute hundreds of thousands of hectares of private agricultural lands to farmer-beneficiaries (FBs) due to stiff landlord resistance? GMA also mentioned about the opening of a new Jollibee branch in Basilan. Would the opening of a fast food chain in this war-torn province address the problem of landlessness, hunger and control of resources by transnational corporations in Mindanao?

GMA also mentioned prioritizing tourism and agribusiness investments in the country. But the question is, without changing inequitable property relations, who would benefits from all these investments?

Hasty generalization or the practice of jumping to a general conclusion based on insufficient evidence is written all over GMA's SONA. Mrs. Arroyo has showcased in her SONA the few victors from Mt. Everest, the boxing world and the Ms. International beauty pageant but not the many losers in the labor and agriculture sectors victimized by her flawed socio-economic policies. This is not because she suffers from selective memory impairment but because her administration is bent on doing everything to salvage the image of a plummeting leader whose credibility has failed to emerge from the rut since the Garci tape scandal.

ALG has likewise criticized GMA's insistence on changing the Constitution.

The devilish details of Cha Cha must be exposed to the poor and marginalized sectors of society. Cha Cha would not only benefit GMA politically, economic changes in the Constitution that would allow 100 percent foreign ownership of residential and industrial lands, 100 percent foreign utilization of the country's natural resources and the operation of the public utilities fully owned by foreigners would definitely impact on the interest of the poor.

Alternative Law Groups (ALG) is a coalition of 18 legal resource non-government organizations lawyering for the poor and marginalized sectors of society.

Marlon L. Manuel
Spokesperson
Alternative Law Groups (ALG)