Miriam compares PNoy's SONA to a lengthy college paper

(Updated 3:56 p.m.) For Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, President Benigno Aquino III's fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) was like the work of a college student who has nothing much to say.

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In a television interview Wednesday, Santiago lamented how Aquino's speech failed to focus on issues affecting ordinary Filipinos, such as poverty and unemployment.

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"Kulang ang trabaho. Unemployment rate is very high. Yan ang pinaka importanteng problema na nakaharap ngayon sa taong bayan, hindi problema sa foreign affairs kundi problema saan kukuha ng kakainin nila," Santiago said in an interview over GMA News TV's News To Go.

In the same interview, Santiago said Aquino's speechwriters should have used bullet points to sum up the administration's accomplishments in the past year.

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"Nagkamali ang kanyang media adviser na ipaliwanag lahat ng detalye tungkol sa isang taon lang na buhay ng bansa. Walang tao who can keep up with this for 2 hours. Mali talaga ang media operations nila sa Malaca?ang," she said.

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Due to this, Santiago said the President's SONA seemed like it was written by a college student who might get scolded by his professor.

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"Kamukha 'yan sa college na lahat na lang pati footnotes nilagay mo sa paper mo. Lagay mo sa likuran, sa end note. Wag mo lalagay sa main page kundi magagalit propesor mo at maghihinala na wala kang masabi," she said.

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Santiago failed to attend the President's SONA last Monday due to chronic fatigue.

'Speechless'

Later in the afternoon, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda wondered what Santiago was complaining about.

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"What more can she not see in the State of the Nation Address? I am speechless," he said during a press briefing.

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Lacierda explained that Aquino's SONA topics addressed in detail how they plan to solve poverty and unemployment in the country.

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"The President has enumerated the things that we are going to do. We are going to increase manufacturing. We are going to increase tourism. We are going to increase agriculture. We are going to expand the economy so that we?ll have fiscal space to provide for our less privileged," he said.

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"It was 55 pages. Fifty-five pages long and, if you can?t find any word there on generating employment; if you can?t find any statement there addressing poverty, then you must be reading another SONA or another speech?definitely not from the President," Lacierda stressed.

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Silent on 'pork'

Aquino's fourth SONA

?focused on his administration's accomplishments in the past year. He also used his speech to praise some of his Cabinet members, and to criticize erring agencies.

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But Santiago noted that Aquino failed to mention anything about the recent controversy on the use of the priority development assistance fund (PDAF), commonly known as the "pork barrel."

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"Dapat sana pinaliwanag ang napaka iskandaloso na pork barrel... There should have been a specific discussion on corruption and telescope it to the anomalies connected to pork barrel," she said.

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Last week, the Philippine Daily Inquirer ran a series of reports detailing the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)'s ongoing probe on a supposed racket, allegedly masterminded by businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles, to defraud lawmakers and various government agencies. Napoles has denied involvement in the anomaly.

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Santiago said the President should have tackled this issue since his administration has an anti-corruption agenda.

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"Bakit wala tayong imik doon? Ang tema ng administrasyon na ito ay daang matuwid, laban sa korupsyon," she said.

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Santiago had earlier called on her colleagues who were linked to the controversy to file a leave of absence pending investigation on the supposed anomaly.

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Majority solons satisfied

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Meanwhile, members of the House of Representatives aligned with the majority bloc were satisfied with Aquino's fourth SONA.

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Pangasinan Rep. Rosemarie Arenas described the President's speech as "fantastic," since it managed to "capture all aspects of what the President wanted to tell the people."

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"The President was forceful and at the same time he delivered his SONA gently. ?It?s really his style," Arenas said in a separate statement.

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For ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Samuel Pagdilao, the President's SONA last Monday was already "comprehensive."

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"The President touched on a lot of things that were actually put into concrete terms. Example is our economic growth as assessed by foreign entities, he presented concrete examples in many areas, which are indicators of our rising economy like more housing projects, additional CCT recipients, more jobs, more focus on education," Pagdilao said. ? with Andreo Calonzo and Kimberly Jane Tan/RSJ, GMA News

Source: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/318910/news/nation/miriam-compares-pnoy-s-sona-to-a-lengthy-college-paper

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