Putting out fires

There’s no such thing as a short State of the Nation Address in this country, and President Arroyo went beyond her target delivery time of 30 to 40 minutes. By the time she thanked her audience at the joint session of Congress yesterday, an hour and five minutes had passed.

Two journalists helped draft the SONA while a neophyte congressman edited it. But much of the text was the President’s own, like most of her speeches. Up to the last minute she was making changes, and she was ad libbing all the way to the actual delivery.

Days before her SONA her aides said we should not expect any dramatic announcement, and they were right, although the presence of those three boys from Payatas showed some dramatic flair.

Apart from turning her controversial husband into a sounding board for her SONA, President Arroyo read each page to her Cabinet members over four sessions including one emergency meeting, getting inputs, discussing her targets. She wanted to make sure every promise she would make in her SONA would be delivered in the time frame she would specify.

Last Saturday, when we asked her about the progress of the SONA draft, she said she had whittled it down to "30 pages, double-spaced, font 12." Estimated delivery time: a minute and a half per page.

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Six months since assuming power, President GMA is still the taray girl, distant even when she erupts into hearty laughter, looking like a stern school marm even when she breaks into a wide grin. The poor are probably warming up to Ate Glo, but for many Filipinos "Ate Glo" will never be uttered as easily as "Erap" or "Cory."

But you get used quickly to the President’s temper and her impersonal style, according to Budget Secretary Emilia Boncodin (described by her colleagues as the most powerful member of the Cabinet). Once you get used to the President’s high expectations, you will actually appreciate it, Boncodin said. "I thought I was working too hard until I started working for the President," Boncodin told a gathering of women writers last Saturday.

Scolding? "Everybody in the Cabinet gets scolded," said Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman, blue hip-hop streak clipped to her hair. "(The President) is very exacting, but the drive for excellence makes working in government very meaningful for me."

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"Excellent" is hardly the word used these days by some of Dinky’s former colleagues in non-government organizations to describe the Arroyo administration. These NGOs have made no secret of their disenchantment with the administration they helped install. The President, however, is irritated by perceptions of growing disaffection with her administration, pointing out that the carping is coming only from a small group.

Did President GMA think some people, such as members of the Makati Business Club, were too impatient for results after just six months? "Of course they are impatient," she snapped. "Even I am impatient."

Dinky conceded that expectations among certain sectors were unusually high following the ouster of Joseph Estrada. She also lamented that among such groups, each time a demand would be satisfied, they would ask for more. "The bar keeps getting higher," Dinky said.

While the government is moving quickly to address problems, particularly poverty, Dinky emphasized that the results aren’t going to be dramatic. "We’re not trying to be a great government," Dinky told me. "We’re busy putting out fires."

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How long do they expect to be putting out fires? At least until December, Dinky said, when much of the average Filipino’s deep distrust of government would have been dispelled. This the administration hopes to achieve through consistency in government policies, and follow-throughs to prove that anti-poverty programs are not the same gimmicks of the past, she said.

A yearend target may be too optimistic. The global economy isn’t going to recover soon, and we don’t know how long it will take for lawlessness to subside. The deficit is the biggest ever, and Boncodin projects that a balanced budget can be possible only by 2006 at the earliest.

There’s no room for pessimism, however, in the Arroyo administration. Her Cabinet members and other officials are busy meeting the targets she has set. "In spite of the fact that I’ve lost my weekends, I’m glad to be in government," said Teresita Quintos-Deles of the National Anti-Poverty Commission.

In the next six months, they will have to meet the President’s targets; their jobs depend on it. They better succeed – the nation’s fate depends on their performance. The government can’t afford to be putting out fires forever.