State of the Nation Address

President Arroyo's State of the Nation Address (SONA) paints a large infrastructure canvas, both encompassing and exciting. But when one examines the details more closely, at least two serious flaws are detectable.

First, the claim that the income of the poorest household increased by more than 30% in the past three years is simply not true. On the contrary, total household income fell by almost 13%, while the income of the bottom twenty percent declined by 4%. This explains why Filipino families today are losing the battle against high prices.

Related to this claim is the drop from 28% to 25% of those living below the poverty line in the past three years. Our poverty incidence has decreased by only 2.6% in the past three years, a dismal record as our ASEAN neighbors are able to register this decrease in a year.

The second serious flaw is the lack of strategic thinking in the infrastructure program. The North Luzon super-region was identified to provide the food and fish needs of Luzon. But there is no fish catch in the Cordillera, and very little fishing in the Ilocos. There is however an abundance of fish in the Pacific from Cagayan to Bicol, yet there is no airport or seaport being developed along the western coast except for a RORO port in Dingalan, Aurora, which has been delayed for almost a year.

The construction of two more international airports in Luzon and two in Batanes is incomprehensible. What we need are better roads. Big dams like the proposed massive Agno River project have always proven overly expensive and difficult to maintain. San Roque and Casecnan are the most expensive dams ever built. Communal irrigation dams are the better alternative.

If the infrastructure program President Arroyo outlined in her SONA can be rationalized then it's possible to bring affordable food to the population with improved roads and transport, and link the various islands in a more efficient production and distribution system.

But above all, the delay, slowness and indecision on key infrastructure projects should be vigorously tackled. For instance, we would have already decongested Metro Manila if we did not dilly-dally in connecting the North Triangle MRT to the LRT in Monumento.