Monday, July 26, 2004 Editorial: State of the Nation
'The Filipino nation will presumably be all ears to know what Mrs. Arroyo has to say in her Sona.'
PRESIDENT Arroyo will deliver her State of the Nation Address (Sona) when the 13th Congress opens Monday. Most of the members of Congress are expected to be in attendance in the joint-session, although a few have signified their intention of not attending.
As the title implies, the Sona will contain information on what is wrong with this republic of 84 million Filipinos and what the President intends to do by way of righting that wrong in the next six years of her term of office.
Of course almost everybody knows what is wrong with this country. The list is long. The economy is down, the huge budget deficit, graft and corruption, massive unemployment, runaway population growth, the communist rebellion, the Moro problem, terrorism, criminality, the drug menace, restive elements in the military, the widening chasm between rich and poor, the poor quality of public education - and only lately, the expected repercussions of the pullout of the Philippine humanitarian contingent from Iraq.
All these we already know, but what we don't know is what President Arroyo has up her sleeves to address each of these problems. The Filipino nation will presumably be all ears to know what Mrs. Arroyo has to say in her Sona. She will be like a basketball coach who calls time out when the game is not going right for the team in order to map out plays for both defense and offense that could lead to victory.
As in any basketball game, there is no guarantee that the players will be able to execute the plays and win. In like manner, the Sona is no guarantee that Mrs. Arroyo would be able to lead Team Philippines to victory. But it won't be said that she hadn't tried.
The announcement by mother-and-son senators Loi Ejercito and Jinggoy Estrada that they will not attend in deference to the plight of jailed family patriarch and former president Joseph Estrada will be of no moment. Either the substance of Mrs. Arroyo's Sona would be beyond their grasp, or as is more likely, they would want her administration to fail anyway. They won't be missed.
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