Midway along the yellow brick road

By Terence Eyre Belangoy

Here’s the usual anecdote that passes around every time there’s a State of the Nation Address (SONA), whether of the current president or previous presidents, that would serve as an ice-breaker to President Noynoy’s (PNoy’s) long speech crammed with facts and figures: The president cleared his (or her, as the case may be) throat and opened his speech folder, signaling the commencement of his speech. He quickly closed the folder. The audience stared in disbelief and incomprehension. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the true state of the nation.

The true state of the nation the above exaggeration may not be, but PNoy’s speech appealed more to the head than to the heart: both as to the length and to the figure-laden reportage-style format. His economist-background (or maybe that of his speechwriter) showed true to form in his 2013 SONA.  

Personally I have no argument with facts and figures, having an Economics background myself.  But it may not have the same effect on the ordinary listener , the Juan or Juana dela Cruz on the street who is more likely to be persuaded by the emotional tugs of a persuasive speech, SONA or otherwise.

Beyond the emotional effect of a SONA though, the real-life effects on the lives and livelihood of Filipinos are what weigh most heavily in favor of or against PNoy. More than three years into his term, the collective expectation on everybody’s mind is whether PNoy has delivered his promises; also whether the numerous facts and figures he quoted in his speech have trickled to the hoi polloi, the intended beneficiaries, his “bosses”. Already midway along the yellow brick road of daang matuwid, by now results should have been apparent.

The change we may have been hoping for may not be that apparent at this point. Matching Pnoy’s SONA figures with the figures of the National Statistical Coordination Board’s (NSCB) recently-released triennial report, the poverty incidence of the Philippines has not changed. The quarter for quarter 2006, 2009 and 2012 analyses showed that the Philippine poverty incidence remained relatively unchanged: the percentage of extremely poor Filipinos was 13.4 in 2012, 13.3 in 2009 and 14.2 in 2006, statistically insignificant changes.

Figures for figures, the big change that everybody was hoping for under president Aquino’s term has yet to be felt.

 That being said, he still has more or less three years to finish his term and fulfill his promises to the Filipino people, whom he endearingly calls his “bosses”. By then, history will judge whether President Aquino will be a farce or a first-rate; a heel or, like his father, a hero.