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Tuesday, July 29, 2003
Arroyo worries for grandkid’s generation
By Linette C. Ramos
CONCERNED about the future of her granddaughter's generation, President Arroyo outlined reforms in education, health care services, housing and land acquisition and poverty alleviation in her third State of the Nation Address (Sona) Monday.
Contrary to the claims of some sectors critical of her administration, Arroyo said she stood by the reforms she initiated in her Sona last year, especially in the areas of employment and housing.
She also said the steady supply and stable prices of basic and prime commodities since she became president in 2001 greatly contributed to the lowest inflation rate in the country's economy in the last 20 years.
Among the other accomplishments Arroyo reported in her Sona:
* Philippine economy grew by 4.4 percent GNP last year and 5.6 percent in the first quarter of this year. Foreign investments rose by 26 percent compared to the same period last year;
* Basic transport fare has not increased since her first Sona;
* The nautical highway was set up to reduce transport costs from Mindanao to Luzon;
* From having the second most expensive power in Asia-Pacific, the Philippines now ranks seventh;
* Electrification of some 1,500 barangays nationwide; and
* More than 500,000 hectares of land under the agrarian reform were distributed;
She admitted, though, that some of the reforms have yet to take off. "Changes cannot happen overnight."
"Many of our reforms have yet to bear fruit, but there should be no doubt that our country in the fullness of time will reap what was carefully picked, planted and nurtured. And it will be a harvest of plenty," the President said.
She delivered her third report to the nation before a joint session of Congress garbed in a purple gown. The 12-page speech took 45 minutes and was punctuated by applause 79 times, including the now customary standing ovation at the end.
The speech was still under revision shortly before noon Monday to include the mutiny in Makati City staged a group of 296 junior military officers and soldiers.
She also enumerated among her achievements the:
* Start of peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) next week;
* Putting up of school buildings in 600 barangays with no schools and implementing distance learning for 400 far-flung communities;
* Building 100,000 houses for the poor and about 200,000 for workers. About 300,000 poor families were also given security of tenure in the lots that they occupied;
* Setting aside P10 billion for micro-credit, then adding another P10 billion and;
* Ensuring the computerization of the 2004 elections.
Arroyo asked Congress to pass the bill on the indexation of "sin" taxes to finance the universal coverage of Philhealth, or health insurance.
The government's health care services should be strengthened and cheap medicines and health insurance should be made available to everybody, especially the poor.
Arroyo also formally asked Congress to pass two vital bills that would speed up countryside development and compensate thousands of victims of human rights abuses during the Marcos regime.
The President said there should be a law to allow small farmers, especially beneficiaries of the land reform, to use their lands as collateral for agricultural loans to increase productivity.
She also asked Congress to pass a legislation that would allocate P8 billion from the recovered Marcos ill-gotten wealth as compensation for human rights victims during the martial law years.
A bulk of the recovered ill-gotten money of the Marcoses amounting to P38 billion would be used to fully implement the government's Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program, Arroyo said.
Arroyo also cited the resilience and skills of the following Filipinos: boxer Manny Pacquiao, who recently defended is IBF super bantamweight crown; the residents of Vacante in Alcala, Pangasinan for overcoming the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) disease; residents of Inug-ug, in Pagalungan, Maguindanao for insisting to the MILF and the military that their town is a sanctuary of peace; former MNLF warrior Sonny Ayao, who became a community organizer after 27 years of fighting.
She also lauded the Filipinos in Kuwait, who refused to leave their jobs; teacher Josette Biyo of Iloilo, a world champion in Science and Math teaching who has a planet in the solar system named after her; Luz Lozada, 72 years old, of San Isidro, Davao del Sur, who is the image model of the hybrid rice technology; police officers Cayetano Gannaban and Raul Graza, who fought off 20 rebels in a firefight in Quinapondan, Eastern Samar; and police colonel Boysie Rosales, who turned down a P35-million bribe from drug lords.
Arroyo said she would do everything to make sure that the future of the next generation, including her granddaughter Mikaela Gloria, would be bright by waging war against terrorism, corruption, disease, drugs, and destabilization. With She Caguimbal-Torres
(July 29, 2003 issue)
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