Last SONA is no swan song
Gloria coy on exit, says a year still a long time

BY REGINA BENGCO and JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR

PRESIDENT Arroyo, in her ninth and last state of the nation address yesterday, thanked the Filipinos for making her president, but stopped short of categorically saying she will not stay in power beyond the end of her term in June, saying one year is still a long time.

She also lashed out at critics who while unnamed were clearly identifiable as former President Joseph Estrada and Sen. Manuel Roxas II.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde on Sunday said Monday’s SONA would feature a "fighting and determined President." He was right but his statement that Arroyo would not talk politics was proven wrong. The speech was accompanied by an audio-visual presentation.

Arroyo’s valedictory SONA, which coincided with the sixth anniversary of the Oakwood mutiny of the Magdalo soldiers, was 13 pages long, took 58 minutes to deliver, and was punctuated by applause 126 times, including the applause and standing ovation at the beginning and at the end of her speech.

"At the end of this speech I shall step down from this stage but not from the Presidency. My term does not end until next year. Until then, I will fight for the ordinary Filipino. The nation comes first. There is much to do as head of state -- to the very last day. A year is a long time," she said.

Arroyo said those who accuse her of attempting to declare martial law and of trying to perpetuate herself in power by amending the Constitution are creating their own demons.

"I have never done any of the things that scared my worst critics so much. They are frightened by their own shadows," she said.

She also said her accusers are guilty of the crimes that they accuse her of committing.

"I have never expressed the desire to extend myself beyond my term. Many of those who accuse me of it tried to cling like nails to their posts. I am accused of mis-governance. Many of those who accuse me of it left me the problem of their mis-governance to solve….I am falsely accused, without proof, of using my position for personal profit. Many who accuse me have lifestyles and spending habits that make them walking proofs of that crime," she said.

Arroyo said her critics are making the allegations out of frustration because they blew the chance given them to serve the country.

"Those who live in glass houses should cast no stones. Those who should be in jail should not threaten it, especially if they have been there," she said.

Arroyo was referring to Estrada, who was ousted for allegedly plundering the economy while living a lavish lifestyle. He was sentenced to a life sentence but Arroyo gave him pardon.

Estrada has said he will run for president in 2010 if the opposition fails to unite behind a common standard-bearer.

Arroyo said the "noisiest critics" of constitutional reform "tirelessly and shamelessly" pursued Charter change in their time when they thought they could benefit from it.

"Now that they feel they cannot benefit from it, they oppose it," she said.

The staunchest supporter of Charter change was former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., who pushed for a shift to a parliamentary system of government and a unicameral Congress during the Ramos administration. He was backed up by the Pedrosa couple who initiated the PIRMA (People’s Initiative for Reform, Modernization and Action) to extend the term of the Ramos administration.

Arroyo said the opposition even tried to bring down her administration through coup attempts which she addressed through "emergency proclamations" and "ordinary powers" that are available to her office.

"My critics call it dictatorship. I call it determination. We know it as strong government. But I never declared martial law, though they are running scared as if I did. In truth, what they are really afraid of is their weakness in the face of this self-imagined threat. I say to them: do not tell us what we all know, that democracy can be threatened. Tell us what you will do when it is attacked," she said.

She said given the same problems, she would again "defend democracy with arms when it is threatened by violence," with firmness when it is "weakened by division," with law and order when it is "subverted by anarchy," and sustain it with "wise policies of economic progress."

Arroyo told presidential candidates to "talk more about how they will build up the nation rather than tear down their opponents."

"Give the electorate real choices and not just sweet talk," she said.

Arroyo took a dig at Roxas, a presidential aspirant, who has accused Malacañang of conspiring with multi-national pharmaceutical companies to skirt the Cheaper Medicines Law which he sponsored.

She said government’s efforts to prod the drug firms to halve the prices of essential medicine proved to be effective. She said she had supported the House version of the Cheaper Medicines Law, which is tougher than Roxas’ "weak version" that won out in the bicameral level.

"To those who want to be President, this advice: If you really want something done, just do it. Do it hard, do it well. Don’t pussyfoot. Don’t pander. And don’t say bad words in public," she said.

Roxas had said invectives and donned garlands of garlic during an anti-Charter change mass action in Makati City.

Arroyo’s tirade against Roxas received the loudest applause and some cat calls, with many lawmakers looking around the plenary hall to see if the senator was around.

He was not, preferring to join a protest rally in front of the Commission on Human Rights Office at UP Diliman where he delivered his counter-SONA.

Roxas pushed for the half-priced medicine program as Arroyo’s trade secretary and as a senatorial candidate in the administration slate in 2004.

Arroyo said the country would have been flat on its back if she had listened to those criticizing her policies.

Arroyo said she would just continue to focus on governance particularly on the three Es (economy, environment and education) while "keeping the ship of state away from the shallows some prefer, and steering it straight on the course we set in 2001."

"A President must be on the job 24/7, ready for any contingency, any crisis, anywhere, anytime. Everything right can be undone by even a single wrong. Every step forward must be taken in the teeth of political pressures and economic constraints that could push you two steps back-if-you flinch and falter. I have not flinched, I have not faltered. Hindi ako umaatras sa hamon," she said.

Arroyo said her administration "must be doing something right...even if some of those cocooned in corporate privilege refuse to recognize it," in an apparent reference to the Makati Business Club which has grown critical of her administration.

She cited the highest average rate of growth, the increased the investments, large job creation, and the credit upgrade at the height of a world recession. She said this is "good news for Filipinos but bad news for our critics."

To prove that her administration’s achievements are trickling down to the people, she cited persons like Gigi Gabiola, a former house help in Dubai who now works at the labor department under the emergency employment program; Tarnati Dannawi, a Badjao who earned P180,000 last year from mariculture; Mylene Amerol-Macumbal, an accounting graduate who placed second in the bar exams and is the first Muslim woman bar topnotcher; Jennifer Silbor, a medical transcriptionist who now earns P18,000 monthly; and Leah de la Cruz, one of 12,000 rebel returnees who is into handicraft livelihood training.

She also said boxing champ Manny Pacquiao epitomizes the Filipino qualities of hard work and fear of God.

"However, much as a President wishes it, a national problem cannot be knocked out with a single punch. A president must work with the problem as much as against it, turn it into a solution if she can," she said.

Arroyo cited the following achievements of her administration for the past nine years. She said she:

"Exorcised the demon of foreign debt" by lowering foreign debt from 73 percent to 32 percent of gross domestic product, debt of government corporations from 15 percent to 7 percent, and public debt from 78 percent in 2000 to 55 percent in 2008. She said non-performing loans also dropped from 18 percent to 4 percent.

Improved the banking system and lowered inflation to 1.5 percent in June, the lowest since 1966.

Gave cash subsidy to 700,000 poor families, land to 700,000 farmers, microfinance loans to seven million entrepreneurs, 100,000 emergency employment, one million housing, P500-one time subsidy for small electricity users, and placed 86 percent of the population under the Philippine Health insurance.

Created schools in over 1,000 barangays, built 95,000 classrooms, hired 60,000 teachers and spent P1.5 billion on teacher training.

Created the Presidential Task Force on Education which recommended 10 years of basic education and two years of pre-university before three years of university, and the seeking of international recognition for engineering, architecture, accountancy, pharmacy and physical therapy; and

Improved the atmosphere for peace talks with both the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.