SONA

Aquino-ArroyoAdministration

Having read the 1ST SONA’s of both Presidents, I must say the greatest comparison they have is the idea of improvement in all aspects in our country and government. Both speeches also listed down their priorities and stated in what aspects are we in need of change. Apart from what I said they had completely different ideas in mind. They had different goals and saw different rooms for change. Arroyo’s SONA 2001 had a theme: Trabaho, edukasyon, sariling tahanan, pagkain sa bawat mesa (http://www.gmanews.tv/sona2006/sona2006summary.htm), while Aquino’s speech was mainly all about the past Administration’s wrong doings and insufficiencies. Indeed, he had brilliant goals and changes in mind such as the Fiscal Responsibility Bill, Procurement Law, Anti-Trust Law, Whistleblower’s Bill and others but his speech was almost spent on listing down proofs of Arroyo’s shortcomings. I too cannot blame him for mentioning it because he wanted transparency for the people to understand what are the problems he received as the next President of the country. I respect both Presidents for their numerous goals in their 1st year in office because they have experienced and seen even the smallest of things what the country has been through before they succeeded into Presidency. Even I dreamt of numerous changes if I were elected President someday. I don’t want to get into technicalities and numbers because a summary of their ideas would be better than feeding you with facts.

Aquino-Estrada Administration

Looking through both President’s speeches I saw a lot of commonalities in their ideas and outline of the speech given. Former President Estrada’s speech in summary was also mentioning the corruption and shortcomings of the former administration. He also mentioned ‘excess’ a lot in terms of funds, lifestyles and theft in which he plans to stop it all just like what Aquino plans to do. Also his plan of making the past as a lesson to the Administration of their weaknesses and studies the past to look for rooms for improvement. Mindanao conflict, Economy and Radical Restructuring are 3 concepts in which I can summarize Estrada’s speech. I cannot put simply into 3 concepts the ideas President Aquino have considering the numerous problems our country faces today compared to the past administrations. Just from the starting point of his speech, you can see how Estrada has his sights on the Mindanao conflict wherein he wants to focus on more. Radical Restructuring according to Estrada was what we really needed and he highlighted this concept over and over again throughout the SONA. Basically the main contrast of the 1st SONA’s of both Presidents was that Estrada had 3 focuses while President Aquino wants to heal all problems. What made President Aquino entirely different from Estrada was that President Aquino wants everything to be done in hasten.

Arroyo and Estrada’s last SONA

Firstly I want to mention the important details in both Former President’s SONA. Arroyo mentioned the false accusations on her Administration, the changes she has done for the country and that the country should keep moving forward as one. Basically this is everything that she said.
“Towards a new beginning”. The title of former President Estrada’s speech. He spoke of doing well in his administration but we’re supposed to be doing better. He talked of success in the future but also passing through a phase of struggle. He asks for support from the people and that he has brought renewal to our country.

My vision of the last SONA of President Aquino
3 words.
Legacy.Power.Hunger.
I believe he will speak of upholding the Aquino name and that he was able to make his parents proud of what he did for the Filipino race. Accomplishments whether big or small will never be out of the picture and that he passes on the responsibility to the incoming President. Power will be mentioned in terms of that the country has risen and gained respect in the international community resulting to increased power our country has on the world. Lastly he will speak of hunger. Not the hunger for food but the hunger for more. He will speak of the Filipinos wherein we should not be satisfied with what we have and should want to attain more in life because it will help us reach greater heights.
President Aquino seems to be a wise man. Learning from the experiences of his parents. I hope he makes a name for himself instead of being known as Ninoy Aquino’s and Cory Aquino’s son.