PRESIDENTIAL Management Staff director
general Cerge Remonde yesterday said the value-added tax (VAT),
family planning, and the social welfare program will highlight
President Arroyo’s eighth State of the Nation Address (SONA) on
July 28.
Remonde said the SONA, which will run up to
about 10 pages, will contain the usual technical details,
figures and powerpoint presentations that characterized the
President’s previous SONA.
He said the President has been practicing on
its delivery every afternoon for the past four weeks.
He declined to say whether Arroyo would
change her stand of keeping the VAT change, but said the
President would make a policy announcement,
He said Arroyo will also reiterate her stand
on the family planning issue, which has been the subject of a
heated debate lately between the Catholic Church and
"free-choice" advocates.
Remonde also told those who are planning not
to watch the SONA that "it is their duty as citizens to listen
to the President, inasmuch as it is the duty of the President to
make a report to the nation."
The Freedom from Debt Coalition and a youth group have called
for an "electronic boycott" of the SONA by turning off any
electronic item that would carry her speech. They said it is
part of their "see and hear no evil" campaign.
