…is the only line i could think of right now for the President’s State of the Nation Address or SONA 2008. After all, as expected every year, the SONA is another “Red Carpet moment”, a “Runway fashion event”. There is literally a red carpet in Congress and velvet ropes, the President, politicians and their wives are expected to catwalk the latest designs in jusi, piña, silk, organza, in Filipiniana; not that all of them are physically fit for it even after liposuction but once a year, we let them pretend they are, for three hours. And besides, we didn’t start this, Romy Neri had called her “evil” (“She is evil”) in a meeting with two senators mid-year last year in explaining “the anatomy of corruption” and disclosed by witnesses this year; her own economics adviser (Joey Salceda) called her a “bitch” this year (“she may be a bitch but she’s the luckiest bitch around.”); and so, “The Devil Wears Prada” comes to mind.
The main character, an aspiring journalist, landed work in a glamorous glossy; was transformed into a superficial fashion fiend that her old friends couldn’t recognize her anymore; and a line thrown at her was: “I wouldn’t care if you were out there pole-dancing all night… as long as you did it with a little integrity.”
But when you think about it, pole dancers have more integrity than politicians who require millions of dollars in commissions for every signature they are able to cause to be affixed in government contracts. Pole dancers do not violate any laws; they have to work an honest sweat before they could earn their keep; and they don’t lie to their audience.
And so, integrity is not a matter that would be addressed on Monday’s SONA. The president has had to make tough choices:
Integrity versus trying to shut up witnesses like Jun Lozada; integrity versus shutting up witnesses like Romy Neri; integrity versus giving out government posts to politicians as reward; integrity versus distributing fertilizer fund to her allies in hundred of millions of pesos.
Two weeks ago, i was able to attend a meeting of the University Council (U.P. Diliman) Committee on National Policies and Programs. The committee revisited its mandate, which was to review, continuously, national policies more specifically legislative programs; etc. And i mentioned that, since we would be looking at legislative programs, aren’t we anticipating this year’s SONA, where the president is expected to present her legislative agenda. The committee chair, Prof. Emy Boncodin, said that the SONA had been prepared three months ago, by inputs from her cabinet members, put together by a speechwriter. And i said, yes we didn’t expect to influence what she would address , what do we want her to address? And so, one of the professors said, yes, we’d like her to address the matter of the continuing burden imposed by VAT taxes, to review this current scheme and to reconsider instead imposing specific taxes instead of continuing the present E-VAT.
And another professor said, yes, we’d like her to address that. Also, the pressing food crisis manifested by the run-away increases in food prices.
And the chair, Emy Boncodin, said, “She (the president) had been warned about that by one of her advisers, (she mentioned the name, can’t remember it right now), a member of NAPC (National Anti-Poverty Commission), as early as 2001, she had been warned about that.”
Now, that’s a story, coming from a former member of her cabinet. Gloria did not lack for information on what problems the country would face, it is she who is ultimately responsible for setting the development priorities of government, yet she did not do anything about it. And now, she is handing out dole-outs in one-time P500 from the VAT windfall, not auditable; instead of using the funds, for example, so there would be shorter lines for NFA rice by increasing the distribution centers, the supply, the personnel, and the hours. Or making capital available for people to start small businesses and financing the training for start-up and the monitoring of the loans etc.
And so. Monday’s real State of the Nation Address would be about the unsaid and the unaddressed.
The gaps and the blank spaces.
What she would not say.
Staying in power in her JC Buendia gown.
