The final address?

Statistics? Think again! The byline of National Geographic’s Air Crash Investigations may very well be the reaction to the supposed 9th and final State of the Nation Address of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, as she filled her speech with numbers and statistics that supposedly show just how effective and successful a president she has been for the past eight years.

She immediately runs down the numbers, showing how low this is, how high that is. From inflation to GDP to OFW remittances, the Chief Executive paints a very pretty picture, one would think we were in Switzerland!

And many economists did give her that. They agreed with most of her pronouncements and claims regarding the economy, but were constrained to explain why things seem to look so rosy. Most had to deal with the strength of the peso, and since we were way down to begin with, every inch up easily becomes a foot!

So much for patting herself on the back, since there were so many other aspects of this great nation of ours that she just totally ignored. The most glaring being corruption.

She claims that there is no proof of any wrongdoing on her part. That’s because her lackeys had to become the fall guys, none of them by the way, have yet to see the inside of a jail cell.

Her administration is fraught with anomalies, irregularities and glaring acts of corruption, placing the country in last place among its ASEAN neighbors!

Another would be the human rights abuses committed during her watch, which even the President’s son would not comment on. Journalists and activists who have been killed or gone missing, no mention about them either.

The question of accountability totally skirted, and egging her critics and detractors to just move on shows just how accountable she truly is.

But to take her to task, if the economy is so, so good, why is her satisfactory rating so low? In fact, if her administration is to be praised for all the good that it has done economically, shouldn’t it be a cinch for their presidential bet to win next year?

And yet, the surveys show just how popular they really are!

Where has all that money from a strong economy gone to? Ah, we look back to the anomalies that hound her administration! Lifestyles? She should look at her allies before looking at the opposition!

The tougher Cheaper Medicines Law of the House? Who stands to benefit most from that version? Who owns a pharmaceutical company in the House? And where is the signature of the President on the Executive Order regarding the MRP? The multinational drug companies are throwing chaff to mislead this government into thinking that they really want to lower their prices, but not on the ones that are raking it in for them!

Finally, is she or is she? As expected, the last portion of her address would focus on her plans after her term officially expires. This issue is what everyone wants a clear picture of. But instead, she offers a blank image.

With no categorical pronouncement on whether she will seek another office, stay in the same one, or steps down for good, she jabs at everyone by saying she is president until June of next year. How comforting.

She has thumbed her nose at her critics. She has pat herself on the back. She has fought back, much to the delight of the partisan crowd reminiscent of a North Korean gathering.

But in the end, she continues to displease the people she claims to serve. Let this be absolutely the last.