Rondel John E.

Forjes

BSED 4B English

Reaction Paper on PNoys SONA 2015

Corruption was the root of our people's suffering. Our battle cry: where there is no
corruption, there will be no poverty. This was one of President Benigno PNoy Aquino IIIs
messages in Tagalog that caught my attention during his sixth State of the Nation Address
(SONA) last July 29, 2015 at the Batasang Pambansa. He emphasized this statement by blaming
once again the previous administration of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo mentioning
the problems he inherited during his earlier days as President such as the NBN ZTE Deal, Hello
Garci controversy, the questionable bank accounts of Jose Pidal, Maguindanao Massacre, MWSS
Bonuses and the NFA anomalies. His Excellency by mentioning such serious problem in our
country is good, but I hope that he himself didnt commit it, and speaking of corruption he
wasnt able to mention the controversial PDAF issue that happened in his term.
The speech was indeed an impressive work itself since it was in Filipino, thus majority of
the people was able to relate to what he is saying and able to either agree or contradict to his
report. As expected, the President put the best face he could on the accomplishments of his
administration, but were this accomplishments he stated about is accurate? I hope so. . .
The President started his main topics by applauding first the members of his Cabinet for
excellent jobs as members of his Daang Matuwid program. He showcased the achievements of
his administration in transportation and communications, tax/revenue, labor and wages,
international relations, education, budget and finance, peace, social welfare, justice, calamity and
disaster preparedness, national security, economy, infrastructure, governance and reform.
PNoy also bragged about the average growth in the manufacturing sector under his
administration from 2010 to 2014, the manufacturing sector grew by 8%. The unemployment
rate of the Philippines according to him also dropped to 6.8% last year and considered as the
lowest ever recorded in a decade. He also highlighted the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino
Program or 4Ps which now have 4.4 million beneficiaries from 786,523 in 2010.

He also mentioned that the Philippines is now called Asias Rising Tiger, Asias Rising
Star, Asias Bright Spot as the country was unanimously deemed investment grade by the most
prominent credit rating agencies. According to him, around 80,000 new entrants join our labor
force every year. But the Filipino people in general are yet to feel this growth in the economy
because what is more felt is the grip of poverty in many Filipinos.
PNoy also highlighted their efforts and achievements in relation to Health and Education
sectors of the country. On education sector, PNoy said that Alternative Learning System helped
to ensure that even indigenous peoples and street children are not left behind. The requirements
for the K to 12 programs backlogs of 66,800 classrooms, 145,827 teachers, and 73.9 million
textbooks already provided. For TESDA program of the government, studies show that 71.9% of
TESDA graduates found employment right away, compared to the 28.5% recorded before. In the
health sector, 89.4 million Filipinos are already member of Philhealth program. Beginning in
2014, for the poorest 40 percent of the population, treatment in public hospitals is free.
The governments attention to health and education is also beneficial for our country as
this is for economic welfare. Economic development is not only characterized by mere increase
in GDP but a sustained economic growth with improvements in the economic welfare, that is, not
only in terms of financial figures. However, if we look at our current situation, what do we see?
There still are people who cannot access free medication, not with all the obsolete and
dysfunctional medical facilities and equipment. Authorities say they buy brand new equipment
when in fact such are secondhand and after a few days of use, the so-called brand new machines
already need repair. Similarly in the education sector, there is still apparent shortage in
classrooms and teaching materials, a complete example of that problem is our University (CSU
Andrews). Even the number of teachers is not sufficient, and many children still cannot afford
going to school. These are the things which are apparent and easily seen as evidence that we still
cannot feel what changes has been brought. The government still needs to give more attention to
these sectors because these sectors can contribute a lot to the economic development of our
country.
With the two hours and 15 minutes speech of our president, he missed some of the
important topics because the SONA was focussed on his administrations accomplishment and
giving credits to his partners on his Daang Matuwid. Some of these important issues that the

he failed to mention during his sixth SONA are the following, the controversial PDAF issue
which I mentioned above, the Mamasapano Massacre, the expansion of Chinese territories in the
West Philippine Sea and the Freedom of Information Bill.
Overall, the things mentioned above did a great contribution to the economic
development of the Philippines. However, such developments are, right now, only manifested in
figures and not in the actual or physical sense. There will be no rallies and no protests if only the
people experience the benefit of a growing economy. But it is also worth noting and PNoy also
deserves appreciation for his struggle and determination to change the government for the better,
to eliminate corruption, to haul the people from poverty, to promote sufficiency and so on. I
understand that being a leader is not an easy thing. That is why we, people of the Philippines,
must also give our president the respect he deserves for these things. He, who advocates
change, is already doing his job to shoulder the problem of the whole country.