Sana sa SONA

“Sana sa State of the Nation Address (SONA) 2013” Last July 22, 2013 marked the 4th State of the Nation Address (SONA) of our President Benigno S. Aquino. The SONA highlighted the achievements he did for the country. However, these achievements couldn’t be feel yet by the grassroots.
Below are the issues and/or concerns that need to be address and be given emphasis:
1. Looking into the statistics, unemployment rate remain high though it decreased in the 2nd quarter this year from 7.5% to 7.3%. Despite of this fact, many Filipinos are still jobless. Each day they travel from place to place and walk street to street just to search for a stable job aiming to help one’s family climb from poverty.

2. Mining industries are growing in most provinces. Ideally it helps boost our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) however this means that more mountains will be flattened of which most of these mountains are the main source of water. As an example to this, in my province most land owners sell their lands to mining companies. Looking into the future with this kind of move, the worst thing to happen is that the water sources will be polluted or even destroyed or eventually vanish.

3. Children and adults are loitering along the streets asking for alms/donations for food and others. I am witness to this because every day as the motor vehicle stops at the traffic avenue - a disabled person will walk near to me and ask for a peso. Moreover, in most food chains, children are hanging around asking for a coin and use it to buy for food and some rugby or paints to overcome hunger. We’re appropriating budgets for pork barrels but for a minimal concern cannot be given full attention by the local and national government.
4. Basic commodities are getting expensive. We can read in newspapers that our economy grows tremendously but look at the prices of our basic commodities in the market it’s getting higher and higher. The price of one (1) kilo rice goes up to P46.00 from P35.00 before. Is this what we called success when in fact most Filipinos who are on the poverty line struggling each day for food and can’t even eat three times a day?