But Archbishop thumbs it down
DAGUPAN CITY – It was a good PR speech, period.
This was how Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz, a staunch critic of the administration, described President Gloria Arroyo’s address before a joint session of Congress last Monday, State of the Nation.
“She had too many exhibits,” Cruz said, referring to a number of people she acknowledged during her speech as if to demonstrate her familiarity with the situations obtaining in the country.
“Noong araw bangkang papel lang, ngayon mga tao na mismo” he said, obviously referring to the penchant of the president to present objects as props in her past addresses, and wondered how President Arroyo could set out to accomplish the projects she enumerated when she only has 3 years left.
The senior prelate said he observed how President Arroyo “indulged in flattering her favorite officials in her administration including military men and three eminent churchmen to get their support.”
“That means she wants to continue in office. That means she needs longer time in power to do all those things. That’s why she wants Charter change,” Cruz said.
He said that the President was clearly not attuned to the real state of the nation which he described as “very sad and pitiful realities, a very big failure, in very bad shape with her unfulfilled promises”.
“While it is understandable to say where the country is going and what people can expect, it is incongruous to have a SONA precisely so much focused instead on what is not,” he said.
He chided the government that “the reason for this futuristic approach is because the present state of the nation is dim and dismal, hence, the present state is better left unaddressed,” he added.
“Who would not want the 2006 SONA agenda to become realities as envisioned and designed by the present national leadership? But then, if the same national leadership cannot even clean the country of a stupid illegal numbers game like Jueteng, it is quixotic for it to even imagine that it can deliver so many fantastic and grandiose national projects!,” Cruz said. – EVA
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