The Nation is Strong?

President Arroyo ended her 7th State of the Nation Address with the following sentences: "They say the campaign for the next election started on May 15, the day after the last. Fine. I stand in the way of no one’s ambition. I only ask that no one stand in the way of the people’s well being and the nation’s progress. The time for facing off is over. The time is here for facing forward to a better future our people so desperately want and richly deserve. Uulitin ko: Hindi ako sagabal sa ambisyon ninuman. But make no mistake. I will not stand idly when anyone gets in the way of the national interest and tries to block the national vision. From where I sit, I can tell you, a President is always as strong as she wants to be. Pagpalain tayo ng Diyos at ang dakilang gawaing hinaharap natin. The state of the nation is strong. Inyong lingkod, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Pangulo ng Republika ng Pilipinas."

By the 25th of July or exectly three days after she delivered her SONA, broadsheets reported water and energy crises the country will face if water sources continue to dry up because of the extended summer. People were still reacting to a very infrastructure-biased, politician coddling and lack of identified sources of fund SONA of the President, what with a declaration that the "Nation is Strong." There was no mention of the deficit blowout that is about to hit the Pilipinas ceiling. No mention of poverty, of hunger, etc.

Indeed, from where I sit watching intently the highly political rhetoric, I recall the most applauded line of the night: "From where I sit, I can tell you, a President is always as strong as she wants to be." So tell me Madam President, what has been accomplished not from 2002 but lets just speak of 2004, during your inaugural address where you laid out your 10-point legacy agenda, to the present. Surely, the powers you hold are so vast that you can create change and pursue reform. Surely, you yield power tremendously that anything is possible... just to serve our people...surely...


Inaugural Speech:
The 14th President, enumerated her 10-point legacy after she steps down in 2010:
1. The creation of six million jobs in six years via more opportunities given to entrepreneurs, tripling of the amount of loans for lending to small and medium enterprises and the development of one to two million hectares of land for agricultural business.

2. The construction of new buildings, classrooms, provision of desks and chairs and books for students and scholarships to poor families,

3. The balancing of the budget,

4. The "decentralization" of progress around the nation through the use of transportation networks like the roll-on, roll-off and the digital infrastructure,

5. The provision of electricity and water supply to barangays nationwide,

6. The decongestion of Metro Manila by forming new cores of government and housing centers in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao,

7. The development of Clark and Subic as the best international service and logistic centers in the region,

8. The automation of the electoral process,

9. A just end to the peace process, and

10. A fair closure to the divisiveness among the Edsa 1, 2 and 3 forces.