• The IBON Foundation paints a different picture than what you’ll hear in the President’s SONA for 2009. Here’s an account of what’s really happened since GMA’s 2001 SONA → “The last eight years of the Arroyo administration have resulted in record joblessness, deteriorating quality of jobs, falling household incomes, increasing poverty, fiscal crisis, unprecedented debt and debt service, social service cutbacks, and deeper Philippine underdevelopment.” Particularly troubling: “In 2006, the net worth of just the 20 richest Filipinos – including close Arroyo allies Lucio Tan, Enrique Razon, Jr., Eduardo Cojuangco, Enrique Aboitiz and others – was P801 billion (US$15.6 billion), which was equivalent to the combined income for the year of the poorest 10.4 million Filipino families.”
• The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) points out the more fundamental concerns were neglected while the President is busy patting herself on the back → “During the Estrada administration, the per capita expenditure for health was at P201. Under the Arroyo presidency, it went down to P184. On education, annual per pupil expenditure was at P5,830 under Estrada, and down to P5,467 under Arroyo […] According to the PMS, 11.4 million jobs were created in the last five years. The NSO report, however, puts the figure at less than four million.”
• Adarna calls the legacy of GMA as one of bribes, betrayal and corruption → “The government has lost its moral ascendancy to govern due to the long list of scandals, electoral fraud and corruption issues that have mired its rule. The Arroyo administration has long ceased to perform as a role model government for the youth. It has caused the widespread disillusionment among young people and has been a disappointment to the youth’s desire to instill reforms in government.”
• EQ has a lot of good questions for GMA → “‘The days of plunder are over’.This was your bold, proud statement during the plunder trial for ex-President Erap. What happened along the way?”
• Newz Around Us has Pagbabago’s statement for tomorrow’s SONA → “Mrs. Arroyo’s rule is characterized by lies, machinations and the complete absence of integrity. This is currently exemplified by her insistence on clinging to power by illegally amending the Philippine Constitution through “Cha-cha”, engineering a palace-sponsored coup d’etat disguised as “emergency rule” and “transition government” and other nefarious schemes.”
• Cayetano Paderanga has a rosier opinion of the last 9 years of Gloria rule, preferring to call it “mixed” → “The best claim the administration could make for the last eight years would be the faster growth of output (the gross domestic product). From a compounded annual average of 2.45 percent in the 1990s, the growth rate has increased to an average of 4.28 percent.”
• Tomas Africa looks at the employment angle → “Looking back over the past years, there has been no sustainable jobs added to industry […] In the April 2009 Labor Force Survey, the additional 1.5 million jobs were net of the increase of 2.6 million workers who worked for less than 40 hours a week and of the decrease of about 1.1 million workers who worked for 40 hours or more.”
• IBON has some more data regarding the above bullet → “Some 1.3 million or the overwhelming majority of the supposedly 1.5-million new jobs created since last year are actually non-earning, poorly earning or otherwise insecure jobs including part-time work. In April 2009, 540,000 of the jobs created were either unpaid family work (394,000) or domestic household help (146,000). IBON notes that these are jobs that notoriously earn far below minimum wage, if at all. Another 803,000 jobs were created in the own-account category ’self-employed’ […] There has also been a drastic 2.4 million-increase in part-time work which, at 14.3 million out of total employed of 35 million, now accounts for a massive 41% of jobs. The number of those in full-time work in turn fell by 925,000.”
• Isagani A. Cruz tackles the legal issues faced by the administration → “In the past eight and a half years, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo faced several major cases involving constitutional issues before the Supreme Court. She won some and lost others, depending on one’s political orientation.”
• Chiz Escudero shares his take on the SONA: “SANA”

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