The 3rd State of the Nation Address of President Benigno Aquino III was held at Batasan Pampanga Complex in Quezon City last July 23, 2012. Many reactions and comments were published already in his SONA. And what really stunned some Filipinos was the reaction of Senator Vicente Sotto III describing President Aquino’s 3rd SONA was the best SONA ever. He also explained that the President is not pushing for the controversial reproductive health bill. "He didn't say that the RH bill should be passed," said Sotto, who is a pro-life advocate and an RH bill critic.
On the other hand, Zambales Rep. Ma. Milagros Magsaysay scored the rising cost of electricity in the country. She said that even though there are already lights in different settlements in the country, the electric bill is still high. It is true, we all know that poverty rules the country, considering all Filipinos, why make prices high?
He also mentioned the 85% of Filipinos are now Philhealth members and old-age and disability pensioners will receive at least P5, 000 per month, which is a great help to Filipinos in their financial needs. Environmentally speaking, President Aquino mentioned that 1.5 million hectares of trees are to be planted by 2016. Executive Order on mining was cited also. Illegal loggers were also warned: “Kayong mga isinusugal ang buhay ng kapwa Pilipino: maghanda na kayo. Tapos na ang maliligayang araw ninyo.”
In our government, he said that there are no more cash advances allowed in government agencies. Bonus of government workers this year will be based on achieved targets. During his term 3.1 million jobs were created. More than 30,000 nurses deployed to over 36,000 barangays. There is also the free education - 4.57 million students who could not go to school before due to poverty are now able to study. State universities and colleges will get a 43.61% budget increase in 2013. Backlog of over 2 million chairs is to be addressed by 2012 and backlog of over 66,000 classrooms is to be addressed by 2013.
There are still many projects that will help many Filipinos and that will boost up our economy if these are to really happen. “Forgive and forget ang lahat ng atraso ng mga naglubog sa atin sa bulok na estado? Ang magpatawad, maaari; ang makalimot, hindi.” There are reactions in this statement of Aquino. We are aware that forgive and forget is hard but we have to move on. We’re in the present already and what matters is what we have today. We have Aquino as our President, why talk about the past administrations? They have also contributed lot of things for the country, so why judge and reminisce their mistakes only? That should not be.
Aquino also said that: Filipinos made change possible; change comes from the citizenry. Exactly, so hand in hand we’ll walk our way to the “Tuwid na Daan” of President Aquino.
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