GMA to skip SONA, off to Hong Kong with Mike
By Paolo Romero (The Philippine Star) Updated July 25, 2010 12:00 AM
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MANILA, Philippines - Former President and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will leave for Hong
Kong on a Philippine Airlines flight at 6 tonight and skip tomorrow’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) of
President Aquino, who has promised to bare what he said were shocking details of the misdeeds and
misuse of funds of her administration.
Lawyer Raul Lambino, spokesman of Lakas-Kampi-CMD, said Mrs. Arroyo will accompany her husband
Jose Miguel Arroyo for a medical consultation to prevent the recurrence of his near fatal heart aneurysm in
2007.
He said Mr. Arroyo is scheduled to be examined by top cardio-vascular surgeons in Hong Kong, Dr. Kwok
Ching and Dr. Lau Chu Pak, who are colleagues of Dr. Rommel Cariño.
Cariño performed surgery on the former first gentleman earlier this year to repair a new tear in his aorta.
“Attorney Arroyo and his family’s immediate desire to get further presentations of the experiences of
recurrences in similar cases came up following last Thursday’s consultation and evaluation with the team of
his orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Mario Ver, one month after his major spine surgery,” Lambino said in a
statement.
Lambino also said Mr. Arroyo’s spinal surgery last month was successful and that he was on his way to full
recovery. Mr. Arroyo, however, was strongly advised to guard against a recurrence of the aortic aneurysm.
“Dr. Carino, one of the most experienced and most competent experts in the country for this type of disease,
believes that although there is no assurance of a non-recurrence, Attorney Arroyo should observe a
significant reduction of stress level to avoid the disease’s fatal recurrence,” Lambino said.
Rep. Arroyo attended the workshop for some 20 old and new Lakas-Kampi lawmakers for a bonding and
sharing session as well as to set the party’s legislative agenda at the Stotsenberg Hotel in Clark Freeport,
Pampanga yesterday.
Her sons, Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado “Dato” Arroyo and Ang Galing Pinoy Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey”
Arroyo, however, would be attending the formal opening of the 15th Congress in the House of
Representatives and listen to Mr. Aquino’s SONA.
Mikey said he would not be bothered by the possible negative comments that may arise from his mother’s
skipping the SONA, saying the trip was “no fault of hers.”
“She is just doing her duty as a wife as she has done so in many occasions in the past where she dropped
everything just to be at the bedside of my father,” the younger Arroyo told The STAR.
Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez told reporters yesterday that they earlier strongly advised Rep. Arroyo not to
attend the SONA to avoid the possibility of being humiliated by the President on national television.
Suarez said Mr. Aquino might acknowledge the presence of former Presidents Joseph Estrada and Fidel
Ramos but not the former leader as she is now a member of the Lower House.
“I think the common consensus is for her not to attend the SONA,” Suarez said, adding it was almost certain
that Rep. Arroyo’s successor would criticize her nine-year governance.
“Almost all presidential candidates ganged up against President Arroyo thinking that doing so will win them
votes,” he said.
GMA will answer P-Noy SONA
But while she will skip the President’s first SONA, Rep. Arroyo would answer it point by point, her allies said.
She has also tapped former Presidential Management Staff chief Elena Bautista as her new spokeswoman.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, who is likely going to be the next House minority leader, said he will wait for Mr.
Aquino’s SONA and deliver his response in a “counter-SONA” the following day at the House.
“Let him (Mr. Aquino) deliver what he wants to say,” Lagman said in a telephone interview.
Suarez said the SONA would be answered “point by point.”
“Enough of this bashing of the President (Rep. Arroyo). He (Mr. Aquino) already won,” Suarez said.
Mikey declined to comment on the President’s threat to bare details of the alleged misdeeds of his mother
but suggested that he lessen his attacks.
“He is now the President and no longer the leader of the opposition. He has a mandate and God gave him
the opportunity to serve the nation,” he said.
He, however, said the minority bloc would not “be standing in the way of the success of the Aquino
administration.”
“We want to support his programs or enhance his legislative agenda. After all, we all have our sworn duty to
work for the betterment of lives of our fellow Filipinos,” he said. “We will not be oppositionist just for the sake
of opposing but at the same time we will not give up our duties as fiscalizer.”
Leftists eager to attend SONA
Militant lawmakers for the first time in five years will attend the SONA, Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro
Casiño said.
Casiño said in the past they boycotted the SONAs of Arroyo after the “Hello, Garci” scandal stripped her of
any legitimacy as president.
He said Mr. Aquino has a “real mandate” and would therefore be given the benefit of the doubt.
“It’s important that we listen to his speech and give him due respect,” he said. “We’ll have to hear his SONA
as we are holding him to his promises to the people during his campaign.”
“We’re ready to work with the Aquino administration if it’s about genuine and lasting reforms,” Casiño said.
Lakas reorganizes
Meanwhile, with its numbers and power in the House of Representatives having significantly dwindled and
weakened, the Lakas-Kampi-CMD began yesterday its reorganization with no less than Rep. Arroyo giving
up the chairmanship of the erstwhile ruling party.
Some 20 Lakas-Kampi-CMD leaders and members met at the Stotsenberg Hotel in Clark yesterday for a
bonding and sharing session as well as to set the party’s legislative agenda for the 15th Congress.
Rep. Arroyo plans to keep a low profile in the chamber and has endorsed Suarez, who is likely going to be
the House deputy minority leader, to be her successor in the party.
Rep. Arroyo will likely assume the position of chair emeritus, the post offered last year to Ramos, who
rejected it in protest over the merger of Lakas-CMD and Kampi.
Bohol Rep. Erico Aumentado, a former governor and head of the League of Provinces of the Philippines, is
expected to replace Raymundo Roquero as Lakas-Kampi-CMD secretary general.
Roquero will go back to his old post as executive director.
Lambino, who was a member of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD senatorial slate in the May 2010 elections, and
neophyte Lanao del Norte Rep. Aliah Dimaporo were designated as spokesmen of the party.
Roquero admitted that the party was forced to reorganize as many of their members switched loyalties to the
Liberal Party of President Aquino.
Suarez said Lakas lawmakers would focus on supporting tax reform measures instead of opposing the
programs of the Aquino administration.
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'SONA to shock Pinoys'
By Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star) Updated July 24, 2010 12:00 AM
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MANILA, Philippines - In his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, President Aquino said he
would shock his listeners with a litany of his predecessor’s alleged misdeeds and how they had shrunk the
national budget from P1.54 trillion to just over P100 billion.
“I’m not comfortable revealing the details to you now. But you’ll be surprised at what’s left of the budget,” Mr.
Aquino told reporters in Filipino.
“There will be at least a minimum of five (anomalies) that we have uncovered. You will be very, very surprised
at the things that we have discovered,” Mr. Aquino said.
“I think the common reaction was, among those who already know, the expression was, ‘Ha? They did that?
Why did they do that?’ There is really no sense, no rhyme, no reason, but we will be the ones to fix that,” he
said.
Mr. Aquino explained that little is left of the current budget because much of it had either been used or
earmarked for congressional initiatives.
The President said he has instructed Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and his other officials to “re-sharpen
their pencils and do the computation again” to determine why only 10 percent of the original budget was left
when it was only the middle of the year.
“It’s still a work in progress,” Mr. Aquino said of the ongoing re-computation.
Mr. Aquino did not use the word bankrupt in describing the current fiscal condition but said the government
would have to work on revenue generation measures.
He admitted that the figures he mentioned would be verified so that he would be able to give the public the
correct information on Monday.
Mr. Aquino said the budget would be a “major part” of the SONA because the people would have to be
informed of the capabilities and limitations of his administration for this year.
5th rewrite
The President said they were now on the “fourth or fifth” rewrite of the speech because the initial SONA
documents had “24 pages, single spaced, font (size) 16.”
“I said this is too much and I have to be very, very careful of what I say because it might create the wrong
impression,” the President said.
He stressed that the current water shortage would be treated in his SONA as one of the urgent concerns his
administration would have to address immediately.
He said even the Calamity Fund had been misused to benefit selected districts.
“It seems there was a particular district that benefited that was not affected by ‘Basyang’ or even ‘Ondoy’ or
‘Pepeng’ but 20 percent of the 70 percent (funds used) allegedly went to this district,” Mr. Aquino said.
Mr. Aquino stressed that they would have to get a clearer picture of the problem so that proper solutions
could be put in place.
“If you misidentify the problem you are guaranteed to not come up with the correct solution and you will
exacerbate the problem,” he said.
“The problems left a lot of us gasping at what has been done,” Mr. Aquino said.
“In terms of gaining knowledge, Monday’s SONA will really shed light on so many things,” Mr. Aquino said.
He also said his administration might re-align some funds or tap the Kilos Asenso savings program of the
Arroyo administration.
“How do we take care of the funds? There is an authority to realign savings. There are savings coming from
a program called Kilos Asenso. This has been there since 2004 and there have been allegations that there
are no guidelines; bottom line, there are no takers for the fund, it’s about P1 billion or P1.5 billion that can be
tapped (to counter) the depletion of the calamity funds,” Mr. Aquino said.
Aquino added the drive against tax evaders and smugglers as well as other schemes could enhance the
government’s revenue collection.
“(We will) seek the help of the legislature to enact certain laws that would enable us to do innovative
solutions,” Mr. Aquino said.
He declined to elaborate, saying he’d “rather be the doer than the promiser.”
Straightforward
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the first SONA would be “straightforward and will also be in
Filipino” with “intersperses of English.”
“Well, this is the first SONA of the President so we’re coming from the situation where we’re going to
inevitably describe what we inherited from the past administration. So there will be a discussion of, for
instance, the problems left behind by the Arroyo administration,” he said.
“How you put it, how you describe it – whether it’s criticism or not – it’s going to be factual,” Lacierda
stressed.
“The things that would be described, the ills that we are inheriting – these are all factually-based, there will
be no criticism beyond the objective presentation of the ills that we are inheriting,” he said.
But for former President Fidel V. Ramos, Mr. Aquino’s first SONA should focus on the positive.
“For me, it (message) is healing because the country is wounded,” Ramos said.
“The composition of the SONA can be anything. But if they would talk about the problems of the past, which
had been discussed interminably, just talk about the future. It should be a bit brighter,” he said.
Will she attend SONA?
As the new representative of Pampanga’s second district, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s
presence is expected at the opening of the 15th Congress, but will she stay long enough for President
Aquino’s SONA?
“I think the former president will attend the SONA since it will be more awkward if she didn’t,” said La Union
Rep. Victor Ortega, chairman of Lakas-Kampi-CMD for Northern Luzon.
Rep. Arroyo chose to be silent on the issue when sought for comment at Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga
where she, along with Lakas-Kampi-CMD House members, attended a training course on the “dynamics of
legislation.”
Mrs. Arroyo’s son Camarines Sur Rep. Diosdado Arroyo said he would attend Monday’s SONA, but declined
to say if his mother would also be attending.
“Ask her, I am not her spokesman,” he told reporters.
Neophyte Pangasinan Rep. Leopoldo Bataoil also said he expected all Lakas-Kampi-CMD members to be
at Mr. Aquino’s SONA.
Another Arroyo ally, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, also said he wasn’t aware of the former president’s plans for
Monday.
“I am not privy to that information,” he said.
Harry Potter theme
Militant groups led by the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said they would come up with a Harry
Potter themed visual representation of Mr. Aquino during their planned SONA rally, Bayan secretary-general
Renato Reyes said.
An artist group, Ugat Lahi, has been commissioned to produce a “kinder” effigy of Mr. Aquino. The same
group had made effigies of Arroyo for her nine SONAs.
Mr. Aquino, Ugat Lahi said, would be portrayed as a magician waving his wand, and surrounded with effigies
representing the different problems of the country.
“President Aquino campaigned on the strength of promises of change. As president, he is in the best
position to address the people’s demands for change,” said Max Santiago of the Ugat Lahi Artists Collective,
one of the artists working on the effigy.
“After showing the effigy, we will listen to President Aquino’s speech, since we are interested to know
whether or not he will take up the challenge of carrying out the reforms the country badly needs at this time,”
he said.
Reyes, for his part, said he was disappointed with Mr. Aquino’s call for them to just hold their rally at the
Quezon City Memorial Circle.
“We had hoped the new administration would be more flexible in listening to the peoples’ clamor for change.
His predecessor, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, during her first SONA, allowed rallyists to march as far as the
Sandiganbayan and Batasan Road,” Reyes recalled.
“Our issues include human rights, jobs, land, social services and justice and the various problems left
behind by the Arroyo regime. If the issue is simply traffic, this can be easily discussed and resolved, as had
been done before,” he pointed out.
Reyes said even the Commission on Human Rights had expressed openness to allowing militant groups to
march close to Batasan during a dialogue with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Quezon City
government.
“The PNP itself did not immediately object. We would have wanted our lawmakers and top government
officials to see the different issues of the various sectors, which would be impossible if the rally would be
hidden inside the QCMC. We would have also wanted to listen to P-Noy’s first SONA,” Reyes said.
Reyes stressed that launching of mass actions during a SONA has long been a tradition and part of the
democratic process. With Delon Porcalla, Rhodina Villanueva, Ding Cervantes and Evelyn Macairan
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