People speak
 24 July 2008

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ON Monday, July 28, 2008, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will address the Joint Session of Congress, to deliver her State of the Nation Address (SONA), the 8th from when she first took the President’s oath.

The SONA is a political tradition enshrined in our 1935 and 1987 Constitution, both provisions being largely borrowed from the United States Constitution, whose State Of the Union address was, in turn, patterned after the Speech from the Throne of the British monarch at the opening of their parliament.

More than just being a political tradition, our President’s SONA, and the United States President’s SOU for that matter, have become statements of commitments, against which the President’s performance is measured, and to which the ongoing and evolving programs of government must speak.

President Arroyo’s SONAs over the last seven years have been clear and definite about the direction, the targets, the strategies, and the resources that will be needed to bring her vision of what the Philippines must be, or will be, in 2010. The target have been time-based and quantifiable, that is why it has been fairly easy to measure program/project success or failure.

On Monday, the President will again speak to us of her vision and goal for 2010, show us where we are relative to that vision, and challenge us to help her attain that national goal and vision.

The President will render her report on the major projects but before we hear her, let us listen to people speak of those projects.

On the Iloilo East Coast Capiz Road, passing 11 towns in Iloilo province:

* Ronaldo Liagas, teacher, San Juan Academy, Sara, Iloilo: "Nung hindi pa naconcretize ang daan, talaga pong napakahirap dito sa Sara masentro ng kalakalan dito sa Northern Iloilo. Pero sa ngayon, napapabilis ang transportasyon pati yung pag-aklas ng produkto galling sa mga ibang towns."

* Mechil Somera, student, San Juan Academy, Sara, Iloilo: "Bilang isang estudyante, mas maganda itong daanan ngayon, nakatutulong po siya na mabilis an gaming pagpunta sa paaralan."

On the El Nido Bataraza Road in Palawan:

* Seferino Genevea, President, Association of Barangays Councilors in Nara, Palawan: "Taos puso kaming nagpapasalamat sa mahal na Pangulong Gloria Macapagal Arroyo sa napakabuti at napakagandang proyekto dito sa aming bayan. Napakongkreto ang aming kalsada at malaking tulong ito sa mga nagbibiyahe papuntang Bataraza, Quezon, Brooks Point, Española at Rizal."

On the Halsema Road, the Halsema Highway in the Cordillera Administrative Region:

Anna Galang, farmer of Sabangan, Mt. Province: "Maraming ikinaganda ng SONA project dito kasi ang pagtatravel ng mga sasakyan ay madali na para sa farmers at wala ng nahuhulog na mga produkto."

On the Western Seaboard of the Strong Republic Nautical Highway (SRNH):

Jomark Deli Foodmart: "The opening of the western seaboard significantly reduced the cost of doing business by 518% from what used to cost R166,800 to ship an average of 20 tons of squid and fish via long haul, the company now only spends R27,000 to ship the same products via the SRNH."

For 2008, we have completed 20 of the 149 major infrastructure projects with a SONA mandate, with 82 in various stages of implementation and the rest already in the pipeline.

With more space, especially if we include the beneficiaries of MSME or Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Program, we can let everyone who has statement to make through this column.

I wonder, though, if a 104-column series over one year will suffice.

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