Monday, July 26, 2004 Ong: Confronting GMA's agenda By Ted Aldwin Ong
The 13th Congress will officially open tomorrow with the State of the Nation Address (Sona) of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as the 14th president of the Philippines.
This is an opportunity for civil society organizations to renew the various people's legislative agenda that remained "marginalized" in the priorities of the Arroyo administration.
In fact, many issues besetting the Filipino people especially the poor are not included in Arroyo's 10-point agenda.
Issues on women, environment, living wage, decent housing, and reforms in fiscal policy are not mentioned. This means these issues will remain at bay while the Filipino people continue to stand in the sidelines. That is, as the elite squabble for strategic positioning to protect their interests in this administration.
Ma. Ceres P. Doyo echoed the sentiments of many environmentalists in her column, "How green is the Sona?" (PDI 7/22/04). She made reference to the assessment of environmental lawyer, Antonio Oposa Jr., calling President Arroyo an "Environmental Ignoramus." She never had an agenda on the environment. This is the reason why Independent Power Producers
(IPPs) keep on pushing for the establishment of coal-fired power plants.
Oposa was right in saying that in all of Arroyo's previous State of the Nation Addresses, she never mentioned a word on environmental protection. I don't think Environment Sec. Bebet Gozun has this administration's full support in pushing for the government's commitment to the Kyoto Protocol and Agenda 21, among others, when her boss has not taken a clear path on environmental preservation.
With the same magnitude, the women's movement is disappointed with Arroyo. Women's issues did not make it to her working table despite Arroyo's reference to Gabriela as her training ground in understanding women's issues as a student activist. Her scorebook has a failing mark in the services for women.
Arroyo continues to deny women reproductive health services vital to their health and well-being. She has refused approval of the Reproductive Health Care Act with the argument that it tries to "smuggle in abortion." The Freedom from Debt Coalition Women's Committee and Women Rage claim that this is an outright lie for the bill does not contain any provision on abortion services.
The Arroyo government, in its Framework Plan for Women 2001-2004, aims at the promotion of women's economic empowerment, protection and fulfillment of women's human rights, and promotion of gender-responsive governance. And yet, it not only failed to put its money where its mouth is, it also insisted on adding to women's burdens by sticking to policies and priorities inimical to the people.
On top of all these issues, the problem of country's ballooning debt and budget deficit is the single killer that triggers the deterioration of the quality of social services. Arroyo has not taken concrete steps for fiscal policy reforms. Her action in the face of the fiscal crisis is to restructure debt or spread the maturities of our external debt to longer periods. For Arroyo, this is an effective step for genuine fiscal reforms.
The Philippine government has been tussling reforms on fiscal policies going in circles around the culprit. Until today, our legislators are adamant on the repeal of the Automatic Appropriations Law - a law that automatically allocates debt servicing in the national budget.
The repeal of the Automatic Appropriations Law is long overdue. It's about time the Arroyo administration take concrete action on the country's ballooning debt by scrapping this law that prioritizes debt servicing above social services. By doing so, I might believe that this administration is serious in dealing with the genuine issues and sentiments of the people.
But for now, Arroyo's words will remain plain rhetoric despite her declaration that "she shall make good and shall do good, for the good of all and not just for the cameras."/For comments or reactions, email peoplesdomain@lycos.com or send SMS to (0920)4284719
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