So ano na ang SONA?

The State of the Nation Address or popularly called as SONA, was delivered by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last July 27, 2009, Monday, at 4 PM at the Batasang Pambansa. I was not able to watch it. Anyway, I did not expect anything new from her speech. I heard that there were a lot of protests going on at the different places in Metro Manila as well as the regional areas, all of them asking for Gloria to resign and step down from her presidency. There were some reactions that I heard which stated that Gloria failed to address the actual hardships faced by Filipinos because she was too engrossed in her national statistics based on growth in GDP, etc. which the citizens of the country, mostly the marginalized, do not really understand and these said growth have not really been felt by them.

When the masses are asked about the status of their lives before and now, most, if not, all of them will say that life is more difficult this time with the growing unemployment rate in the country and the continuous increase of the prices of commodities. I’ve also heard that the SONA served as Gloria’s ground to slash back at her critiques by blatantly mentioning popular punch lines that identify certain high government officials.

So, what else is new in the SONA? Nothing!

Anyway, to lighten up the subject, I watched last night’s news in ABS-CBN where people were asked what SONA stands for. Some answers were:

SONA
- state of cancellation
- state of donation address

You might be laughing at these answers but this is the reality: not all people give a damn about the SONA and not everyone knows about it, because it does not directly affect their lives especially the hardships that they are experiencing.

Check my other posts:

1. Part Three of Boys Over Flowers
   Because of what happened, President Kang made Jan Di’s life...
2. Where were you 22 years ago?
   I was too young to remember all the events that...
3. Facing Facebook
   It all started out with Friendster. Then came MySpace, Multiply,...
4. Is Ukay Ukay a scam?
   I have heard that the “ukay-ukay” stores all over the...
5. Koreans Believe in Destiny
   First of all, I never actually talked to a Korean...
6. Annoying DFA Experience
   I went to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) this...
7. Withdraw PayPal to Philippine Banks
   1st Update: I can’t add my bank right now, I...
8. Google Developer Day 2007
   Tonight I went to ACCEED Conference Center, Makati City to...
9. Call Center Career without any Calls
   Do you want to work on a call center without...
10. Games UpLate Live Scam? Or Another Technical Glitch?
    Now here is another ’scandal’, ’scam’, ‘controversy’, ‘issue’ or ‘whatever...

Alfredo is a web designer, programmer and a search engine marketer from the Philippines. He is also an amateur photographer and loves to travel. He can be found on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Questions? Send him an email.