GO promises more jobs through labor-intensive infrastructure projects in the rural areas.

Right now, the government has budgeted P30 billion for social services and infrastructure. Total public works outlay through 2010 will exceed P1.7 trillion. What is so new with the GO platform?

GO would train the youth in higher skilled disciplines through increased allocation going to teachers’ pay, books and classrooms.

The administration has plans for an additional 5,000 classrooms in addition to the 12,226 classrooms earlier programmed for this year. More teaching positions, primarily in Math and Science, will also be created.

GO would lower the cost of medicines by as much as 90 percent by providing incentives for local drug production, the adoption of procurement reforms and the parallel importation of affordable medicine.

Just how different is that from the importation of cheaper medicines that the Philippine Trading Corporation has started and which medicines are sold at cheaper prices through the Botika ng Bayan?

GO says: Lower the cost of transportation and power through the aggressive development of renewable domestic sources of energy.

Has the government been deaf to all the clamor for cheaper energy? It has not. Fuel prices have decreased at least five times during the year; so have transport fares by at least P0.50 from P7.50. Power and water rates have also decreased and there are ongoing projects for alternate sources of energy – geothermal, solar and wind.

GO would reject any new taxes such as the proposed tax on text messaging, improve tax administration and utilize the additional revenue from the E-VAT for education, health care, agriculture and science and technology.

The government says that the sustained economic growth of the country comes from its economic reforms that include the E-VAT. The Gross Domestic Product in 2006 was 5.5 percent; for this year, the target is 6 to 6.5 percent. Education is already the first priority for the use of the E-VAT revenues.

GO proposes to contribute to the arrest of global warming and go for a cleaner environment through programs that would accelerate the use of cleaner fuel, reforestation, lower electricity consumption and waste recycling.

Perhaps, it is a secret to GO that the Philippines is already the second largest geothermal producer and user worldwide, We are also the first in Asia to commercially produce wind power. We are also about to embark on a huge biofuels program as mandated by the Biofuels Act that was signed into law only last January.

For the OFW sector, GO would organize additional support for our migrant workers.

The present administration is already doing this. There have been numerous rescue and repatriation of OFWs in perilous situations, DOLE has initiated moves to stop the deduction of employment fees from OFWs. Also, the minimum wage has been raised from P300 to P400.

GO would also institute other meaningful reforms to make the economy more dynamic, efficient and equitable.

Actually, the present government has increase tax revenues to the point that it is actually already looking towards a balance budget before 2010. If one goes by the "8 by ‘08" program, this would focus on job creation, better cost of living, strong peso, more investment, pro-poor healthcare, housing and food, Green Philippines and anti-terrorism.

Through a higher economic growth rate, unemployment should decrease and poverty eased from the creation of new jobs.

Thus, it really looks like there is very little that is new that the Genuine Opposition is promising. Actually, what both sides are promising by way of platforms are just about the same thing. Both are going the way of issuing motherhood statements and very little by way of specifics.

In an election between those on the outside and those on the inside, those who are currently running the government have a distinct advantage because they can always point out that whatever the other side will propose are things that the present administration has already started or even already completed.

Thus, when it comes to promising things, one can hardly beat those who are currently occupying the seat of power.

Thus, sadly, GO is not offering anything new or anything that has not already been tried. This is because there is really no difference in what those on the outside are planning to do when their time comes at running the country from the way that the present government is running things.

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How one wishes that the various political parties that we have would be brave enough to stand for specific principles such as going single-handedly for the easing of the burdens of the poor over and above that of running a spendthrift government.

I would even welcome a resurgent Communist Party of the Philippines that would push a program that would promise equality to all and perhaps even a bit of socialism – higher taxation from the richest ones amongst us and socialized medicine and other benefits. Why should our people die from sickness just because they cannot afford the medicines and health care that they need to go on living? While I am sure that any changes to the status quo will be very strongly opposed by many, it would at least clarify for all of us where we should be heading as a nation.

What does it profit a nation if it succeeds as a citizen of the world but fails to provide for the needs of its own people?

The way that our political parties are going – at least the main opposition and the main administration parties – the choice that they give us is between getting Tweedlee Dum or Tweedlee Dee to run things. As one can guess from choosing between these twins, choosing one over the other will not make an iota of difference from the way things will turn out for us.