What PNoy sees is not what Pinoys see

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

What Pnoy sees and says is not what Pinoys see and say. On hindsight, it was good to listen to the third State of the Nation Address of President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III on television that was muffled by strong rains brought by Typhoon Ferdie. His speech delivered in Tagalog was also interrupted by around 50 to a hundred applauses that signified “approval” by members of congress. I am not sure how many rounds of applause were there.

           

I stopped counting when the audience in the hall kept on clapping even when they did not believe all that he was saying. I wish to point out that a congressman knows the actual state of his province or district, hence, the actual state of the nation, because he is directly connected to the people.

           

But the true picture is distorted as line agency heads will provide the President rosy and perfumed reports of accomplishments that will summarize Pnoy’s report to his “boss.” This is true with non-performing line agencies. What department, by the way, would want to submit a truthful report to the President unless its secretary wishes to attach on it a resignation letter?

 The part of his SONA that touched on fighting corruption, however, is more truthful since we have been seeing crooked public officials being sued in court one after the other, aside from the recent removal from public office of the highest magistrate of the land. I also believe that part of his speech that talked about purging the voters’ list of “ghosts,” and praised appointed Gov. MujibHataman of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao for doing something about cleansing an anomalous Comelec voters’ list. 

           

“Ang mga multo sa voters’ list ay makapagpapahinganaangkanilangmgakaluluwa” (the ghosts in the voters’ list can now rest in peace), he said. That is one good step towards electoral reform and “Clean HOPE” or Honest Orderly Peaceful Elections in Mindanao. But, why Mindanao alone? Voters’ lists in the Visayas and Luzon, particularly, in regions where landlords control politics should also be cleansed.

           

 PNoy’s statement about government effort in Surigao to apprehend illegally cut lumber as a result of EO23 or the total log ban law does not strike me. That is as far as Surigao is concerned. But law enforcers whom I had the opportunity to talk with about EO23 said it was easy to apprehend as many violators as they would want to. Their problem was how to sustain their efforts in situations where LGU executives and other politicians were the violators. Sometime in April in Paracelis, Mt. Province, the provincial police director raided a bodega filled with illegally cut Narra wood.

           

This could have been included in PNoy’s SONA as an accomplishment, but none. What were the fence-sitter authorities in the Cordillera afraid of in Paracelis? The latest I have heard was that the LGU executive has turned the tables and has filed cases against the provincial police director. The DENR should come to his rescue, at least.

Foresters in government and those connected with private companies even confirm that with or without EO23, illegal logging remained uncontrolled. In some parts of the country, it has even become worse. The explanation was that with the cancellation of the Timber License Agreement (TLA) issued over an identified area that was then being monitored 24/7, that logging concession has now become open to all kinds of illegal cutters who enter the area on all sides.

Before the issuance of EO23, government already complained that the very few guards it employed could not sustain forest protection. What more with the cancellation of forest permits and company guards gone? If law enforcers apprehend illegal loggers because of the money that violators pay out to government, that will not help sustain forests.

Next, PNoy said the ratio of textbooks against students would soon be “one is to one.” So with chairs, and that more classrooms and school buildings would be built under his watch. These are good news that may be easier said than done. As a newspaper columnist,

I do not want to be called a sceptic, but consider this. You and I have been hearing from many Presidents about solving the unbalanced “textbooks and chairs” ratio. Not one of them was able to solve the recurring issue. In many primary public schools located in extreme parts of the Cordillera, school teachers get used to teaching two to three grade levels in one sitting.

To be able to do this, classroom partitions have to be removed so that the teacher can walk from one end to the other end of the three-room building and teach the grade levels alternately. I saw this in 1991 in a remote public school at Sitio Am-am on the boundary of Mankayan and Bauko, Mt. Province. Today, that public school looks the same.

Until now, the educational funds that were promised during the times of Macapagal, Marcos, Aquino, Ramos, Estrada, Macapagal again, then Aquino again, have not trickled down to Am-am.

A day after PNoy’s SONA, Mayor Greg Abalos and his department heads in the municipality of La Trinidad, Benguet held their once-a-week “meeting in the barangay” at Shilan. The mayor acknowledged this as a better move to bring the government closer to the people, where interaction is at its best. The participants, particularly barangay officials and community elders are able to touch topics on health, education, environment, public infrastructure and concerns that can be addressed readily by the municipal officials depending on the availability of resources.

The real state of the nation is reflected on the actual concerns of a barangay. The “no holds barred” narration of barangay concerns is proof that what PNoy or any President sees and says is not what farmers and fishermen, tricycle and jeepney drivers, sidewalk vendors, low-salaried public school teachers and the ordinary man on the street see and experience.

Billions of pesos may be promised and released by Malacanang, but these hardly trickle down to the masses. The real state of the nation is what the masses feel in reality that they want the President to know. It is true; a heavy downpour in Malacanang is not even a dew drop on an ordinary street below. – marchfianza777@yahoo.com