Arroyo: 1st SONA will be for the poor

President Arroyo will lay down the means by which the government could uplift the life of the poor when she delivers her first State of the Nation Address (SONA) before a joint session of Congress on Monday next week.

Speaking in her husband Mike Arroyo’s radio program yesterday, Mrs. Arroyo said the measures are part of the government’s program to drastically reduce, if not wipe out, poverty in the country within 10 years.

"Aside from the general principles, I will define the different programs directed at the poor segment of the population," she said. "We will put up and pursue specific programs for the impoverished and the disadvantaged."

Mrs. Arroyo said she will announce during her SONA the planned cut in transportation fares and in the prices of medicine to lessen the burden of the ordinary wage earner.

The National Food Authority will also deploy rolling stores to sell basic goods at low prices in depressed and calamity-stricken areas nationwide, she added.

Mrs. Arroyo said her administration will also set up an emergency employment program for the out-of-school youth to reduce the unemployment rate, just like during the time of her late father, President Diosdado Macapagal.

The program intends to benefit at least 10,000 out-of-school youth within 12 months, she said.

In her SONA, Mrs. Arroyo is also expected to announce the allocation of P100 million for the P20-billion Agricultural Modernization Program.

Militant workers and students nationwide plan to go on a work stoppage and hold protest actions when Mrs. Arroyo delivers her SONA next Monday.

Mrs. Arroyo appealed yesterday to labor groups not to push through with their protest actions and mass leave from work as the government is doing everything to ease their burden.

"Our government is doing everything it can to lower the cost of living," she said.

"(Any mass action) would only cause more economic difficulties."

On the other hand, Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas warned workers on the consequences of joining the planned mass action.

"Joining protest action is their right but why will they not report to work?" she said. "What will it do to them?"

Sto. Tomas said the government knows about the workers’ grievances and it is doing everything to find a solution that would be acceptable to them.

But members of Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), Bagong Alyansang

Makabayan (Bayan) and other cause-oriented groups nationwide are set to take to the streets to press for a P125 across-the-board wage hike.

KMU spokesman Sammy Malunes said KMU and other militant groups will mobilize about 50,000 workers from Metro Manila, Southern Tagalog, and Central Luzon for the protest action.

"Workers led by KMU will join the nationally-coordinated rallies to press for a P125 wage increase and other socio-economic reforms," he said.

Malunes said workers in Metro Manila will go on mass leave to join protest actions in front of the House of Representatives in Quezon City.

Workers in the Visayas and Mindanao will walk out of their jobs in factories and other companies in support of the mass action in Metro Manila, he added.

Malunes said workers are in dire need of a salary increase because of the rising cost of living as a result of the recent hike in oil prices.

Malunes said the majority of workers are "taking home nothing but empty pay envelopes" because they are receiving a "very small wage" as a result of many deductions.

Students will also be holding a simultaneous mass action to dramatize their objections to the Arroyo administration’s apathy towards the poor, he added.