Honeyman: SONA

THE optimists amongst us see President Aquino's State of the Nation Address to-day as being a watershed in Philippine governance.

It is strange though customary that the President's first Sona is presented less than four weeks after his inauguration speech. But there has been time for the President to identify problems with greater precision and to formulate a strategy - at least in outline.

Updates on President Benigno Aquino III's presidency

There may be a temptation to bemoan the adverse situation the incoming government has inherited - especially the ballooning budget deficit, already at P196.7 billion for January - June 2010. I hope that PNoy will not complain about the past but accentuate the positive and describe his program.

In Bacolod, we had a good experience in 2004 where incoming Mayor Leonardia in his State of the City Address did not whine about the condition of the city when he took office but simply emphasized the work for which he would be responsible.

Last year we listened to what turned out to be President Arroyo's last Sona, though she didn't say so at the time. ABS-CBN contrasted the petulant (`I didn't become President to be popular') 2009 Sona with the graceful and dignified 1991 Sona from President Corazon Aquino.

In 1991, Cory stated clearly and unambiguously that she would step down at the end of her scheduled term (30 June 1992). This was greeted with genuine and sustained applause. Our 21st century Sonas have been tainted by unwanted audiences of toadies and sycophants. We trust PNoy will avoid this disagreeable choreography.

This year's Sona will shed light on those issues which the President considers to be most vital. Given that the speech will probably not last much more than one hour, then the President will do well to cover even a few of these currently vexatious problem areas: employment, poverty, justice, education, health, corruption, pensions, consumer protection welfare, finance, international relations, infrastructure, tourism, disaster preparedness, security (including food security), environment, law enforcement, civil service reform, etc.

Most real issues cover more than one of the problem areas noted above. It is not feasible to predict those aspects which will be included in Sona but I have outlined below three possibilities which I hope Noynoy will include.

Elections

We are a democracy. This means that we have elections at specified times. Whether local, regional or national, those elections will take place on schedule, except under the direst of circumstances. Budgetary problems are not dire - at least not yet. The Barangay elections will take place in October. Speculations that they will be deferred for a year are completely unfounded.
Truth Commission

It is a month since the formation of the Truth Commission was announced. The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission of 1994 was a partial success, mainly because an amnesty was offered to some of the erstwhile miscreants.

We have to be practical. Are we going to be hard line, in which case there will be minimal cooperation, or are there situations where a negotiated amnesty may be appropriate? I am thinking of Romulo Neri. Is there evidence that he benefitted from the aborted NBN/ZTE contract? Is there evidence that he tried to benefit from the contract? Or was he merely a good soldier who did what he was told? [Though the cynical ones complain that attributing, as Neri then head of NEDA did, a 29.6% annual rate of return on an investment of $329million, when 60% of that investment was earmarked to pay bribes, was well above and beyond the call of duty]. A conditional amnesty negotiated with Neri may produce benefits and further the cause of justice more than a tough approach which simply engenders a legal battle which Neri's camp is quite likely to win anyway.

Education

There is some pressure to extend our ten year basic education program to the international norm of eleven or twelve years. Given our limited resources, a pragmatic approach is to examine how we can allocate the education budget more effectively within the existing frameworks. More integration between different sectors is both feasible and desirable. There needs to be productive conversations between DepEd, CHEd and TESDA as to what can reasonably expected from a high school graduate entering tertiary education.

We need to consider whether all high school students should, irrespective of ability, aptitude, and interest, undertake the same curriculum or whether third and fourth year high schools should have academic, vocational and technical streams. Let us play to the strengths of our students.

There is much talk about our inadequate textbooks. This is a minor matter compared to our inadequate curriculum. We need a curriculum that energizes rather than enervates students' naturally lively minds. Undue rote learning as opposed to nurturing understanding is prevalent. We would like to see Bro Armin take his mind of sex education and join hands with his senior officials and knowledgeable outsiders such as former DepEd USec Juan Miguel Luz to completely revamp our curriculum.

Teacher training needs to be re-assessed. We should dispense with BSEd courses which are not of a sufficiently high academic standard. Instead our potential teachers should take a normal BS degree, followed by a one year teacher training course, including in-service training prior to sitting for the licentiate examination for which the pass/fail bar should be much higher than at present.

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Next week: A honeymoon-free critique of Sona plus more analysis of the intractable issues facing the cabinet.