How to evaluate a SONA? In form, it should have SAD - situation, action, and direction. In substance, it should contain nothing but the truth.
As I said earlier, I'm satisfied already with the achievements of the PNoy administration in the last two years. And it will be very satisfactory if the reform promises and development targets that PNoy mentioned today would be realized in the coming years.
Yet, we can help this government by speaking truth to power - through offering both critique and alternatives. Among many other important and urgent issues, I maintain, urge, and propose:
- that we still lack a clear-cut development strategy which should not only be reduced to mere 'inclusive growth' rhetoric [to me, this strategy should have a synergistic framework between technology-intensive industrialization, agricultural productivity, and knowledge-based services that would be able to bring about higher incomes for workers, increasing earnings for businesses, and a larger tax base for the government to enable it to support universal social entitlements to health care, education, and other social security services];
- that the increasing GDP we have, the appreciation of the peso, and the rising indices in the stock market are not good indicators of our real economic progress or prospects, and that these figures are only desirable if they would lead to raising the standard of living of the people [hence, redistributive justice through political will and institutional reforms have to done to alter the elitist development structure where workers-led growth is only enjoyed by the privileged few];
- that the environment and ecology should be given utmost priority these days, including methods of adaptation and disaster risk reduction, as well as the bolder agenda for green technology production; and
- that peace and order and the fight against criminality, especially those brazen street crimes, have to be seriously eliminated.
Nevertheless, kudos to the reform efforts of PNoy and his team and most especially to all the Filipinos' achievements and contributions in the last two years of the incumbent administration. No doubt, this SONA is also a campaign speech with a view to the upcoming elections. With this speech, the reform coalition and allies of PNoy will be the team to beat.
Now, let's continue doing good, contributing to our country's development in our own little ways, and remaining hopeful that we are on track to reclaiming a nation of peoples with a sense of social justice and a life of dignity and happiness. Right on!
References to PNoy's Third State of the Nation Address (SONA) here: