As much as I wanted to watch President Aquino’s first State of the Nation Address (SONA) on television, still I would be deprived of possible chances due to my class schedule. The feeling would have been different if I were to hear the President’s voice rather than merely reading the widespread transactional copies of his speech via Internet. Anyhow, allow me to state my personal perspectives and standpoints about the latter.
Truth be told, I wasn’t actually the type of person who had drastically supported Noynoy throughout the entire election. Young as I am, though I’m still not at the legal age to vote, I’ve somehow established my personal choice to which I shall be supporting. Apparently, I provoked myself from waving my flag for Noynoy. Because of these, I shall sincerely reveal that my views of the President are somehow prejudiced to some extent. But when I started reading a copy of his speech, those views radically changed in one fell swoop. The way the speech was composed had somehow knocked my predisposition down. The President’s SONA highlights the litany of ‘repulsive’ Arroyo-era ‘mistakes’ (as was the subhead for yesterday’s Sun.Star headline).
It was a good thing though to have a closer look on what seems to be the real doings of the country’s former President. I was vaguely aware of those revelations if it weren’t for the SONA though. To mention a few, here are some of the findings from the past administration. There was actually a massive misuse of funds during Arroyo’s era. Her administration spent more than it earned and as a result, a deficit of about P196.7 billion occurred for the first 6 months of this year’s budget. What is then left for the rest of the year? I feel disappointed and apprehensive at the same time because somehow, I yearn for President Aquino’s plans to be established effectively.
One issue that left me awe-stricken was the issue among the Board of Trustees for the MWSS. Having been realized the various bonuses, additional allowances and benefits of these people made me utter in complete clamor: “amazing, just downright amazing!” I find no adequate reasons to recognize what pushed these people to be strongly inclined in doing such when in fact an immense number of people are vehemently suffering just for their own satisfaction and pleasure. Where could you even find a position in the government that grants you P14, 000 for every session done? This is revoltingly unbelievable and repulsively disappointing, I shall say. Even the La Mesa Watershed was not an exception. Instead of planting trees for the sufficiency of the watershed, houses were built for the higher officials of the MWSS.
Another was the fund for the country’s infrastructures. The DPWH classified 246 priority safety projects to be funded by the Motor Vehicle Users Charge. But it turned out that only 28 out of the 246 projects were funded. They disregarded the remaining 218 projects in exchange with 70 projects which were not part of the original plan. The budget for the allotted projects even got higher and by which the unplanned projects are enjoyed only to those chosen beneficiaries. Those are just some of the revelations that were discovered by our current administration.
I’ve come to realize that what our President is facing are big issues which also need big and efficient solutions. As what the prominent line goes from a famous movie: “with great power comes great responsibility.” It may be tremendously true but in accord with that, I’d like also to denote, just as what some people would remarkably denote, that the responsibility is not held liable for our President alone but we as the countrymen should also be held liable for responsibility towards the success of our nation.
As a student taking up the degree program of Communication, I hardly appraise what the President said in the near-end of his speech. It tackles about the media especially the print and radio stating that the latter should be vigilant yet again for the country’s milieu and stick to what has been the basis of principle in the first place.
Furthermore, this is where the role of the press as watchdog is exploited. Another is to give the media consumers a clearer perspective towards an important issue. To be fair and straightforward prior to every subject, the media shall then report without fear or favor the shenanigans of a particular topic of interest. The most challenging part was to intensify the level of public discourse. There was actually something from these lines that drew me to conclude that President Noynoy trusted the media by some means.
To end this all up, allow me to share this saying that goes, “Ask not what the country can do for you but ask what you can do for the betterment of your country.”
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