Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Mayor hails Arroyo's nation address
KORONADAL CITY -- Mayor Fernando Miguel foresees an unprecedented change in Mindanao's economic landscape in the coming months as he hailed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's commitment to reinforce Mindanao's socio-economic and development gains with more "realistic" policies and programs.
Miguel, chair of Southwestern Mindanao's Regional Development Council (RDC), said the President's commitments and plans for the island outlined in her State of the Nation Address (Sona) will accelerate the development of the region.
"Being mainly an agricultural area, we will directly benefit from the government's move to enhance agribusiness investments in Mindanao," the mayor said.
The "paradigm shift" is fused into the plan to establish "mega regions" in various parts of the country.
However, several residents expressed skepticism about the President's Sona, which lasted for more than an hour.
"Although it tells about real advantages in the economic landscape, it was very partisan and leaves no room for any reconciliation and unity which she emphasized in the previous Sona," said Alfredo Hebrona Jr., the private sector representative of Sarangani Province in the RDC.
He said the present political intramural will likely continue as the President's Sona did not propose a way out.
Eliezer Billanes, secretary general of the Soccsksargen Alliance for Genuine Development, meanwhile said the President's Sona revealed its real agenda against those opposing her "illegitimate" government.
"For me it was all about her hunger for the blood of the militant activists and her desire to remain in power through Charter change," he said.
For Rona Dawang, who watched the President's Sona while waiting for her turn to pay her telephone bills at a lounge of local telephone company here, said there was one thing that's lacking in the Sona.
"What's there for us here in South Cotabato? She only mentioned Pacquiao and Davao so I guess that shows what we should expect from her," she said.
Bernard Francisco, council member of barangay Sta. Cruz, said there was nothing significant in the President's Sona but empty promises.
"The figures she mentioned may have changed but the rhetoric were the same," he said. (Allen V. Estabillo)
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(July 31, 2006 issue)
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