MANILA, Philippines—President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has made a number of promises in her State of the Nation Addresses (SONAs). How did some of the promises fare?
• Increased investments in physical, intellectual, legal and security infrastructure to increase business confidence
The 2008 budget allocated nearly P200 billion for public sector infrastructure, up from P185.67 billion in 2007.
According to Presidential Management Staff Secretary Cerge Remonde, 20 of the 149 priority infrastructure projects mentioned in the 2006 and 2007 SONAs have been completed.
The launch of the Central Nautical Highway in April brought to 17 the total number of ports interconnected to the Ro-Ro (roll-on, roll-off) Highway System.
Still, business confidence was down to its lowest level in more than two years by May, according to a survey by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, due to skyrocketing food and fuel prices.
• One million jobs
National Economic and Development Authority data show that from the 978,000 jobs created in 2004, the figure dropped to 699,000 in 2005 and to 486,000 in 2006.
In 2007, the number of jobs created likely reached at least one million. In January to October 2007, at least 767,000 jobs were generated.
But figures from the National Statistics Office released in June show that employment went down from 33.7 million in April 2007 to 33.5 million in April this year.
The unemployment rate was likewise up between April 2007 and April 2008—from 7.4 percent to 8 percent.
• More funding for investments in a stronger and wider social safety net, including cheap medicine, affordable housing and quality education, among others.
Last month, Ms Arroyo signed Republic Act No. 9502, or the “Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008.”
In April, she inaugurated the 11,000th Botika ng Barangay. BnBs have reportedly served 25 million Filipinos through half-priced medicine.
The Department of Education has reported the construction of some 15,000 classrooms, the creation of some 4,000 principal and head teacher items, and the creation of more than 16,000 new teacher items in 2007.
But school buildings in typhoon-ravaged areas still needed repair: Over 600 destroyed and over 1,000 damaged classrooms in Pangasinan by Typhoon “Cosme” and at least 100 school buildings in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao damaged by Typhoon “Frank.”
But a report by the National Statistical Coordination Board said primary school enrollment was only at 83 percent at the end of school year 2006-07.
While Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said that 2007-08 enrollment was at 85 percent, this was still lower than the 90 percent registered in 2002-03.
In fact, primary school enrollment has been decreasing since then—88.74 percent in 2003-04, 87.11 percent in 2004-05, and 84.44 percent in 2005-06.
In 2007, Pag-Ibig president Romero Quimbo said the housing provident fund had allotted P21 billion for housing loans. But it ended up lending an all-time high of P23.5 billion, up by 42.5 percent from the new loans released in 2006.
In April 2008, the Pag-Ibig Fund earmarked a record P30 billion for new low-cost housing loans to meet an expected boom in demand due to a low-interest-rate regime in 2008.
• A stop to human rights abuses
At the Universal Periodic Review of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva in April, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita’s report on the Philippine situation was reportedly applauded by member-countries.
But while the number of rights abuses and extra-judicial killings has gone down, the government is still being criticized for not effectively prosecuting the perpetrators.
High-profile cases of disappearances (Jonas Burgos, Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeńo) have yet to be resolved.
Police are also accused of summarily executing three men suspected of involvement in the massacre in May of 10 people in a Laguna branch of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.
• Computerization of elections
In February, the Department of Budget and Management released more than P867 million for the computerization of the August elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
On July 22, a mock election was held to test the automated voting and counting systems that were installed. But on the same day, Ms Arroyo endorsed the postponement of the ARMM elections in deference to the peace process between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
• Investing in peace in Mindanao and in efforts to crush terrorism
Informal talks between the MILF and the government have bogged down on disagreements over an earlier “breakthrough” agreement to create an ancestral homeland for some three million Moros in Mindanao. The MILF blamed the government for the collapse of the talks.
Last year, powerful explosions ripped through passenger buses owned by Weena Bus Co. and Yellow Bus Lines in Mindanao, killing and wounding passengers.
The al-Khobar Gang, allegedly connected to the Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf, was reportedly behind the bombings. The same group was also tagged as the gang behind a deadly explosion earlier this year outside Philbest Canning Corp. in General Santos City.
Last month, ABS-CBN reporter Ces Drilon and her two cameramen were kidnapped in Sulu by gunmen believed to be members of the Abu Sayyaf.
Surveys by Social Weather Stations show that hunger in Mindanao was at 17.7 percent in June 2008, and ranged from 17.7 percent to 22.7 percent in 2007.
Severe hunger—which refers to households who experienced involuntary hunger “often” or “always” in the three months preceding the survey—was at 4.3 percent in Mindanao in June 2008, and reached as high as 5.3 percent in December 2007.
As of March, the percentage of households in Mindanao considering themselves “mahirap” (poor) was at 59 percent. In 2007, self-rated poverty in Mindanao ranged from 49 percent to 68 percent, according to SWS.
