The 9th SONA

July 27, 2009 is the day where many of the speculations are answered and many of the accusations ended. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s last state of the nation address took at the Batasan Complex at around 4PM in the afternoon. All ears and eyes were glued on their television sets and radios. Every Filipino wants to hear her talk about the current standings and are hopeful that she will finally reveal the truth of our country’s condition. Before we talk about the 9th SONA of President Arroyo, almost all of her critics are worried that she might reveal in her speech—her plans for pursuing the constitutional assembly, as we all know from our political studies subject, constitutional assembly will only happen in the House of Representatives where all of the country’s congressmen convene. Without the participation of the Senate, they can vote if they are in favor of the constitutional assembly. Since we all know that majority of the congressmen are on the side of the administration, it is not impossible to gather the three-fourth votes of the populace.

Constitutional assembly became an issue because critics of the president are afraid that she might over use her power to change the constitution so she can extend her term which will nearly be a decade. Well, when the president finally had her speech this afternoon, it is clear that she will step down from her presidency until 2010, that she has no plans on extending her term, that she will finally let her enemies sleep in peace. The 9th SONA is likely not that astounding because for me, some of it was a bit misleading and untruthful. She said that our economy is strong but why is our country’s debt shoot up from 2 trillion in 2001 to approximately over 4.8 trillion in 2009? I mean, an average person can actually get my point straight; we can distinguish easily that if our country’s economy is really that strong, the government should not only be paying for the interest but for the monthly installment of the debt itself. Recent social weather station surveys revealed that there is actually an increase of unemployment and underemployment rate in the Philippines knowing that fresh graduates are in a tight competition in vying for a decent job.

Through all of the president’s struggles to neutralize her reputation and maintain her office, she is still able to survive. Although, I’m not really a big fan of her, I can really consider her a “small but terrible” woman. She faced a lot of impeachment cases, several mutinies in the military, and countless of rallies along the highway, but she’s still there, as if nothing happened, still “serving” for the Filipino people. The 9th SONA really did end a lot of controversies, and I hope that by tomorrow, issues that keep on bastardizing the headlines in the newspapers, radios, and television would come to an end. She may not have done great, but I believe that she’s done something.