Instead of a highly partisan speech by the incumbent president on the state of the nation, our country might be better served if the mayor in every town, and the barangay captain in every barrio, were required annually to face their people and give a report of the state of their respective communities.
If the nation were a family, it would clearly be wrong to describe its state solely in terms of how sufficient its earnings are relative to its needs, or how strong the house is in which it dwells.
The business pages of both the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Philippine Star carried almost identical headlines the other day. “Remittances surged to $1.48B in May,” said the Inquirer. “OFW remittances hit record high in May,” said The Star.
Not too long ago, a couple of bishops of the Catholic Church who were attending an important meeting of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) were invited to have a meal with some Malacañang officials.
IN OUR daily lives, we experience the state of our nation as a series of random events with no visible logic or coherence. We see only what we see, and remain blissfully unaware of the partial nature of our vision.
THE PUBLIC has watched with great interest the almost weekly visits of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to Pampanga, particularly to the province’s second district, where she is a registered voter.
