Noy urged to map out national policies in his 3rd SONA

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Gregorio Honasan said he hopes that President Aquino will map out his national policies in his 3rd State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 23, which the senator feels he had not done in previous reports.

“I’m hoping to hear from him in his SONA the national direction, his marching orders, his priority in the national government so we all know what to do,” Honasan said in Bacolod Saturday.

He said if the President wants national security as the topmost priority, then government resources should be geared toward that goal.

“If he says our second priority is tourism, then our resources will be channeled along that objective,” he added.

Honasan rates Aquino’s performance thus far in the past two years as a seven on a scale of 10.

“I’m a very kind professor. I give him a passing grade. In other words, he is not on the dean’s list and he is not a scholar, he just passed. But he has so much room for improvement,” he said, adding that the President’s heart is in the right place because he seems to be untainted with corruption and has only good intentions for the country.

Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma, on the other hand, expressed hope that Aquino would give a truthful report about the country’s condition.

“At the time when the speechwriters are already working on President Aquino’s speech, they should consider sticking to facts,” Palma said.

He said he is also hoping that the President’s SONA would help unite the people and serve as an inspiration to move forward.

“There are a lot of problems and concerns, but when we solicit the cooperation of many, we have the competence and encourage the people to collaborate and work together. We would be able to give solutions to many of our problems,” he said.

He also assured Aquino the bishops would be praying that the Holy Spirit would inspire him during his SONA.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) is expected to provide adequate security on July 23.

The PNP would be deploying 7,500 policemen of which 3,500 policemen would come from the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) while others would come from nearby police regional offices.

However, Central Luzon farmers gave the President’s two-year accomplishments a “double thumbs down” rating in a rally yesterday.

“Aquino has implemented policies and programs detrimental to the region’s farmer sector,” said the Alyansang Magbubukid ng Gitnang Luzon (AMGL) during the rally, where they burned a life-size effigy of the President.

AMGL invited farmers and members of other sectors in Central Luzon to join a protest caravan tomorrow to culminate in a rally during the SONA in Metro Manila.

“Everybody knows about Hacienda Luisita. They (Aquino’s family) conned the government in 1957 and used public funds, they massacred the farm workers in 2004, they blocked the DAR and PARC’s (Presidential Agrarian Reform Council) decision to junk the stock distribution option in 2006, they tried to peddle lies at the Supreme Court during the oral arguments and carried out a bogus referendum in August 2010,” the group said.

AMGL chair Joseph Canlas cited the case of farmers in Tarlac city “where the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEX) project has triggered massive land grabbing and speculation, in anticipation of the abrupt appreciation of land value.”

He said that mining operations are also systematically destroying the mountains of Zambales, Pampanga and Bulacan, which Aquino is continuously promoting through his recently issued Executive Order 79. – With Evelyn Macairan, Ding Cervantes