Tag: State of the Nation Address 2008

The President in her SONA today said that the conviction rate of the Ombudsman increased by 500%!

 

 

 

       Since the President said the rate increased by 500% ; it means that the present rate of 14% is five times better than its previous record; or that the conviction rate of the Ombudsman improved by five times. In other words, the old number plus five times that old number, equals the new conviction rate.

       So,  a number,  plus 5 times that number, equals the present conviction rate of 14%.

        So, it’s:  (sorry for this, i had to break it down by figuring it manually and it was too long, the summary is; hwag ka na magalit):

             x + 5x = 14      (is this right)

                            6 x = 14

                              x = 2.3

                   Hwag ka na galit. 

            It’s 2.3% previous conviction rate compared to the present 14%. (my  4th check). It means that the previous conviction rate was 2.3 wins (convictions) and 97.7 losses (acquittals) out of 100 cases. (check: 2.3 plus 5×2.3 = 14)

             Or 0.23 out of 10.

       Or out of ten cases, the Ombudsman was previously winning zero or 0.23.

       If you were transparent about it in your speech, you would have said:

         THE OMBUDSMAN WAS WINNING ZERO OUT OF TEN CASES OR 0.23 out of 10; NOW IT IS WINNING 1.4 OUT OF TEN CASES; AT LEAST IT’S WINNING ONE AND A HALF OUT OF TEN, OR AN INCREASE OF, YES, 500%. Yehey! 

  

 

 

 

      Based on her previous pronouncements (and not on my crystal ball, i don’t have any, i just look at files): she will blame world prices for the unavailability of affordable rice in the Philippines resulting in kilometric queues for NFA rice and chaotic hungry crowds; without answering why she did not do anything about ensuring food security when the crisis had been anticipated years ago; she will crow about her P500 electricity subsidy (dole-out to those whose electricity bill is less than P700) from the VAT windfall without answering why in this wonderful age of wireless technology, broadband, ATM, she chose the most labor-intensive, time-consuming, nerve-wracking manner of distributing the P500 resulting, again in, kilometric queues, instead of distributing the subsidy as credits in electric bills; the latter, electronic transfers, would not involve her photographs, her posters; and without answering whether or not the people would ever be able to count or measure (audit) how  the two billion pesos in subsidy was being  distributed/ was distributed since the transfer is not electronic but manual, i.e. in petty cash of non-auditable pieces.

     And so,  executive secretary Ed Ermita and press secretary Dureza talked about her gown. (that dress above, made of fabric similar to that she would wear today, e.g., indigenous materials, is $3,000 or P135,000).

         The President’s men talked about the President’s new dress. And said (from http://www.manilatimes.com) :  “PGMA’s gown will also capture her key Sona theme of self-reliance, protecting the environment, helping the poor, the vulnerable, Filipino capacity for stability of the nation into the first world; of government support since the fabric and fiber were created by Philippine Textile Research Institute of DOST; national equity and cooperation because the gown is blend of silk from grassroots of Misamis Oriental (Mindanao) and pineapple fibers produced in Aklan (Visayas) and created and designed by fashion craftsman from Manila (Luzon);  and grassroots participation since the weavers are ordinary folks from Aklan cottage industry; indigenous and environmental because the fabric was dyed using extracts from the bark of “sabang”, an indigenous plant.”

     When asked about the price, Secretary Dureza said: “the fabric costs P600 per yard. 6 yards used or P3,000. When asked how much the creation costs, Joanne said “Filipino ingenuity and craft is priceless.”

     How much exactly is “priceless”? Gowns have tag prices; only  pieces of wardrobe that could be considered as historical artifacts could be considered as “priceless”, e.g., the blood-stained barong of Ninoy Aquino, the blood-stained shirt and slippers of Lean Alejandro, etc.,  unless you are about to tell me that the President would declare something historic today like, tell the truth.

      If the Office of the President refuses to name the price, it must be unnameable.

        I’m not a fashion merchandizer, so  i used research to estimate the price of Gloria’s JC Buendia gown. JC Buendia haute couture  prices  start at 20,000 pesos  (the cheapest, made of ordinary fabric, not of indigenous plants) while a similar “eco-friendly” dress made from organic  dyes and indigenous plants she wore at the anniversary of the Department of Science and Technology cost three thousand dollars or one hundred thirty five thousand pesos. And that was just a dress/ suit, not a gown. She is probably not wearing the cheapest, so the cost of the presidential gown this afternoon is probably at the price range of P60,000-P140,000.

       The Office of the President should review their choice of words.

       Priceless means invaluable to the nation. (Tell the truth today and the gown will be priceless).

      Pricey simply means she-and-a-few-others-but-not-the-rest-of-us-can-afford.

 

 

      …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.