At 4 pm today, July 23, 2012, President Benigno Aquino will report to the Filipino nation — the people he calls “ang aking mga boss” — what his administration has done the past 12 months and what it plans to do in the next.
For the first time in many years, it seems a Philippine President will not lack for good news to share, and share it to an upbeat rather than a cynical audience.
Among the accomplishments he is expected to focus on are the inroads made in the campaign to instill honesty in governance, exemplified by the impeachment of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Another is the economic growth attained in spite of global turbulence, particularly the financial meltdown in the United States and Europe. This is shown by the impressive first quarter growth, the credit rating upgrades by international assessment agencies like Standard and Poors, the record-highs in the stock market exchange, the vigorous inflows of foreign investments, the new investments by local businessmen, and the increase in foreign reserves that has made the country a net-creditor nation at last.
The President is also expected to report on progress made in infrastructure building, fighting poverty and unemployment, education, food and agriculture, agrarian reform, tourism, health, peace and order, and national security.
PNoy will be addressing a mostly receptive nation, a contrast to the skepticism that greeted most SONAs in the past.
P-Noy will face a private sector happy with the way the economy is growing and satisfied with initial successes in the campaign versus corruption. Here, the Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine Islands (CCPI) thinks that Aquino deserves a perfect score.
He will face a group of technocrats and experts in different fields that has given him a passing mark in their own score card.
The Movement for Good Governance (MGG) headed by economist Solita Monsod, gave him 5.59 out of a possible 10. This may look like a pasang-awa (barely passing) mark, but is a definite improvement from the 4.69 the movement gave him last year.
No doubt, his people in the executive branch of government and political allies among the lawmakers would be his foremost cheerleaders.
It is also as certain that activist groups would be protesting and naysaying and panning the SONA for being at best half-truths. Protest action is, after all, par for the course — even indispensable — in a healthy democracy. Moreover, it will do well for any President to listen to what his critics have to say.
Still, overall, the consensus is that PNoy is off to a good start but that he can do much more.
But most refreshing is retired UP political science professor Clarita Carlos’ take. While concluding the administration gets a passing mark for the promised changes in his 2011 SONA, she asserted that the SONA is less about P-Noy’s report card than about us, the Filipino people.
“The SONA is about every individual’s efforts to make this country succeed. We hope he will admonish everyone not to lean and depend on the government all the time but to rely on his or her own initiatives, helped only by the government.”
We are, after all, the state of the nation, she said.
(For more on SONA 2012, particularly on business and economic gains during the year, click here.)