P-Noy’s first SONA awaited
In a few days, come July 26 (Monday), the eyes, ears – and hopes – of our people and the international community will again be focused on President Benigno Aquino III at the joint session of the 15th Congress for his first State-of-the-Nation Address. In terms of significance, P-Noy’s initial SONA and its impact on the domestic, regional and global audience could be as crucial as his June 30 inaugural which was not only pre-ordained and colorful, but truly uplifting.
Not “weather–weather”
The SONA, however, is something else – because it is a dynamic, “down-to-the-last-two-minutes” message for our brighter future that keeps a-forming in the President’s mind until just before he addresses the nation. Developments at home and abroad between now and then may serve to modify his final SONA version.
Even the weather is a factor. Three days ago, Metro Manila and nearby provinces were lashed by typhoon “Basyang” (Conson) which disrupted electric power, suspended classes, diverted dozens of airliners, and shut-off communications.
How the President will travel on the afternoon of July 26 for his SONA will be a major operation that entails much planning. By helicopter, because of flooded streets, traffic jams, etc., or by PSG convoy (with or without wang-wang) or by some other means? In FVR’s case in July, 1992, he had to risk riding a helicopter through threatening skies because of impassable low-lying areas enroute.
For the current run-up to the SONA, again offered here is some unsolicited advice for leaders, which is the continuation of last Sunday’s partial summary of FVR’s Volume V, “Another Ending, Another Beginning: Recapturing Our Nation’s Destiny,” based on his regular Bulletin column “Empowering the Filipino People.”
Priorities: Ticking time-bombs
The new administration will not only have to clean up the mess left by its predecessor; it will also have to tackle the unavoidable concerns facing any developing nation, particularly our socio-economic and security conditions.
Reform and transformation are our ultimate goals because of the increasingly competitive world of the 21st century – where not to move forward is to backslide. These essentials are discussed in the book’s Chapter 3 – “Priorities For Leaders: Ticking Time-Bombs.”
Human development in our country has been declining. In 1997, the Philippines placed in the top half of the UN Human Development Index (at the 46th percentile). In 2009, unfortunately, our country dropped to the HDI bottom half (at the 57th percentile among 185 nations).
Over the past decade, many self-inflicted faults led to our degraded human development – in particular, regarding poverty, galloping population growth rates, environmental abuse, and inadequate basic education. As an archipelago especially vulnerable to global warming/climate change, the Philippines must continually put sustainable development atop our national policymaking.
While such time-bombs (notably peace in Mindanao) represent significant challenges to leaders, the good news is that such threats, for the moment, are just ticking. More important is that they are tackled immediately – before becoming unmanageable or irreversible.
Producing quality citizens
Under PGMA, family planning/development was largely unsupported, policy-wise. In her time, many valid recommendations of development agencies, notably the UNFPA, UNDP, and USAID were mainly disregarded, resulting in our inability to improve the quality of our human capital.
Young people’s failure to access to education beyond high school exacerbates the misery of poverty by limiting their opportunities at home to lower-paying jobs or their opting for overseas work while sacrificing family solidarity.
This vicious circle must be broken on multiple fronts because it represents dangerous ticking bombs. The answer partly lies in adopting modern family planning/development measures, and producing quality citizens – not street children, beggars, and scavengers.
Concurrently, poverty must be tackled by insuring access to quality education and healthcare, as well as availing of green innovations and clean technology. Eco-tourism, for instance, could provide vital assets in expanding our economy without abusing Mother Earth.
Equally important, future generations of Filipinos should benefit from the natural and geographical advantages with which the Philippines is blessed.
Hitting the ground running
The May general elections signified many breakthroughs. The first automated elections – despite initial fears of electronic vote-tampering and other grim scenarios – proved to be generally peaceful and less fraudulent.
Indeed, Filipinos have something about which to be proud from our recent electoral exercise. Still, the problems of political corruption, dynastism, warlordism, and technical flaws persist. These merit high priority attention to forestall future failures and improve the new system’s reliability/credibility.
Chapter 4 – “For P-Noy/Pinoys... Hit the Ground Running” covers both domestic issues and major foreign policy challenges. In the forefront are the proliferation of OFWs due to lack of well-paying jobs at home, continued recession woes in the US/Europe, international terrorism, nuclear weapons proliferation, and global warming/climate change. All will require holistic and converged approaches from the new administration, in cooperation with international partners.
We must progress resolutely – to renew, rebuild, hit the ground running – and do so together.
Forging solutions, not creating problems
Although an array of unresolved issues remain, the nation has been recharged with renewed hope that P-Noy is determined to bring back stability, accountability and integrity.
It is, therefore, all the more important that instead of creating more problems, concerned Filipinos – be they high officials or from the working class – must become part of the solutions to our woes.
To succeed, we need not only unity of purpose, but also sound judgment in the matter of socio-economic reforms to properly harness our God-given bounties and resources.
The nine-year tenure of PGMA that saw Philippine dignity and competitiveness plunge in ratings on corruption, public trust and human rights violations, plus countless other inexcusable acts, is finally over. But, this is not the time to become complacent and/or indulge in political vindictiveness.
Transnational challenges
Experts/analysts affirm that the world’s center of economic gravity has shifted from Europe/US to the Asia-Pacific region whose economies already account for 54 percent of global production and 44 percent of global trade.
These economic trends create new opportunities for East Asia; however, new approaches to speedier development inevitably entail transnational challenges that the Philippines must exploit.
These are covered in Chapter 5 – “Facing Transnational Challenges.” As we advance towards a more prosperous Asia-Pacific, it is inperative that we synergize programs with our neighbors. Doing so, however, will require careful handling of territorial conflicts, security concerns, ethnic/religious diversities, and economic interdependence.
Heavyweights such as China, Russia, India, Japan, and the US will certainly be key regional players since they possess massive resources/assets for human capital enhancement.
For lack of continuity, many countries like the Philippines have thus far underutilized their potentials. Do-able opportunities to increase growth come from green initiatives at which Asian nations are especially adept, the Philippines included.
Organizing a more hospitable climate for foreign direct investment, technology exchange, and economic integration is a “must-do”; thus, freer trade/tourism/travel should be facilitated, not hampered.
Summing up
The spirit of change is again alive in the Philippines, and the era of scandalous leadership and economic inconsistency may be ending.
The question is how our leaders and people can synergize to maximize the momentum for change and harness it for our sustainable benefit. Clearly, it is time to work together again, and help each other with solutions, instead of becoming each other’s problems.
As Filipinos, we believe that our caring spirit is what endows our people with resilience, and that we have equal stakes in the successes/failures of our nation. The sharing of assets/talents in whatever way we can is a necessary part of nation-building. The most difficult tasks involve our daring to give more than to take and to unite for the common good. All these virtues we had manifested in the past in order to overcome crises and then triumph.
Kaya Ba Natin Ito?
The new leaders and our people will need to be more caring, sharing, and daring for each other and for our country so that, without further delay, the Philippines can achieve the goal of “Recapturing Our Nation’s Destiny.”
Read, study or access to Volume V of FVR’s Sermons which will be launched at the Champagne Room, Manila Hotel, at 1530 p.m., July 23, 2010 (Friday). You are cordially invited.
Please send any comments to fvr@rpdev.org. Copies of articles are available at www.rpdev.org.