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Challenges to President Arroyo
In a few weeks time, President Gloria Arroyo
will be delivering her State of the Nation Address.
Definitely, the address would reek of lies under
the banner of “Ramdam ang Kaunlaran.”
President Arroyo would probably boast of the
same lame achievements that are being brandished on the irritating
tarpaulins all over Metro Manila—78,448 new classrooms, 1,745
Botika ng Bayan outlets, 11,024 Botika ng Barangay and 8,874
Tindahan Natin outlets. She would probably brag about the rice
access card and the one-time P500 emergency fund given to Meralco
patrons who consumed less than 100 kilowatts.
It is doubtful that she will mention the
18 oil price increases this year alone (not including the increases
since her last SONA), the 11.4 inflation rate nor the astronomical
increase in price of commercial rice and the recent
“disappearance” of the P18.25 NFA rice from the market.
We thus challenge President Arroyo to admit on
her State of the Nation Address that she pig-headedly refused to
repeal the R-VAT, which would have meant an immediate P4-5 rollback
in the price of oil. We dare her to admit that she would rather
create senseless committees to look into the prices of goods and
commodities than impose a price ceiling as mandated by law. And when
she proudly announced the P20 wage increase, let her also say that
this wage hike has long been negated by the unabated price increases
vis-à-vis the seven years of wage-increase drought under her term.
In short, we challenge President Arroyo to admit
that she is to blame for the woes of Filipino families. But that,
perhaps, would be expecting too much because should she tell the
truth, the only decent move to make next is to step down. And we all
know honesty and decency are words unknown to the President.
Emmi de Jesus
GABRIELA Secretary General
gabriela_news@yahoo.com, gabriela.phils@gmail.com
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