Pnoy, are we living in the same planet?

Open your newspapers or listen to the radio and you will see that the people are still talking about the President's State of the Nation Address (SONA). If at all there was one thing we all shared, it is that his delivery was in flawless Tagalog. Indeed, PNoy must have been thinking that all Filipinos speak Tagalog and understood his speech. But in truth, only the people living in the Tagalog speaking regions understood him clearly. But the rest of us lesser mortals have to wait until we got our copies of his speech translated into English.

Call it a great coincidence that the 4th Aboitiz Invitational Pro-AM golf tournament brought my old media friends to Cebu, notably, Mr. Alex Magno of the Philippine Star, Mr. Jojo Robles of Manila Standard and yes Mr. Conrad Banal of the Inquirer with whom I was with when were went to China just month after the Tiananmen Square incident where we were the guests of the All China Journalist Association who brought us around China for an entire month. It was my first time to see Conrad in 30 years!

Having these Manila-based journalists for two straight dinners was a great way of exchanging views about the state of our nation especially from the point of view of these columnists writing in different newspaper outlets. One major issue that was discussed in our table was the recent report in the column of Babes Romualdez last Tuesday that the Philippine Star Group of Companies is now 60 percent owned by Manuel V. Pangilinan of the Metro Pacific Group. This news item came just when the Star Group will be celebrating its 27th anniversary this coming Sunday.

Honestly, Star Columnist Babes Romualdez told of this development last December during a dinner with him in Manila, but he swore me to secrecy and Sir Miguel Belmonte confirmed it. With Sarah Soliven (daughter of Max Soliven) getting 10 percent share, it means that the Belmonte Family holdings in this media company have been reduced to 30 percent share of the Star Group of Companies. Honestly, I still have to find out whether The Freeman is involved in this deal. But at least for the benefit of The Freeman, Sir Miquel Belmonte has been asked to stay on to run the news group.

Meanwhile, last Tuesday The Freeman blared this headline about the President's SONA, “There's now a new Philippines” quoting the President as to saying, “From the prudent expenditure of funds to the effective collection of taxes; from infrastructure development to the transparent conduct of business that generate jobs, our message to the world could not be clearer: The Philippines is ready to ride the tides of progress. Truly the Philippines is different today: From a country that was always just the recipient of help, we have become a country capable of providing help.”

Hey Mr. President! Are we living in the same planet? What new Philippines are you talking about? When I drive around Metro Cebu, I only see poverty surrounding our urban metropolis, I see bad traffic congestion, I see killings and murders perpetrated not only by killers or drug pushers, but even the police themselves have gone into summary execution of criminals in what they say was a shootout, which in truth was a “rubout” or worse, the execution of suspects already in police custody. There's no halt in kidnapping and rice smuggling. Here in Cebu, even smuggled rice that was seized already by the Bureau of Customs was pilfered by thieves.

Finally Mr. President, what infrastructure development are you talking about? When you were in Cebu a few weeks before elections, you promised the Cebuano voters that P3.6 billion Mactan Circumferential Road. So why was this not mentioned in your SONA? What about the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) which you said was being tested in Manila? Apparently none of these infrastructure projects were mentioned in your SONA. Again Mr. President, I would like to know if we are living in the same planet?

If we are to see a new Philippines, I would like to see reforms in our Constitution through a Constitutional Convention (con-con) but apparently this greatest of reforms is always shot down by PNoy. I would like to see reforms in the Comelec that openly uses the PCOS machines to cheat for the ruling party. Perhaps the biggest reform PNoy can make is the total abolition of the pork barrel, which only a handful of countries like the United States or Sweden are still using. So if the other legislators of the world can do without a pork barrel why can't we get rid of it under the PNoy's daang matuwid?

As I've always said, I have never heard a lousy SONA made by all Philippine Presidents. But this country doesn't need another SONA that's nothing but mere rhetoric or worse, plain unadulterated propaganda. This is why I ask PNoy… Are we living in the same planet sir?

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