By Carlos H. Conde
International Herald Tribune
Published: July 23, 2007
MANILA: President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo highlighted on Monday what she called her administration’s successes in the past year, saying that these accomplishments – most of them infrastructure projects like roads and airports in the provinces – would play a crucial role in achieving her vision of turning the Philippines into a First World country within the next 20 years.
In her State of the Nation address, which opened the first session of the 14th Congress of the Philippines, Arroyo also called on Congress to pass laws that would “reserve the harshest penalties for the rogue elements in the uniformed services” who are found guilty of killing or torturing political activists. “It’s never right to fight terror with terror,” she said.
Arroyo was referring to the killings of hundreds of political activists that have blotted her administration’s record and attracted widespread condemnation here and abroad. The military has been blamed for the killings and Monday’s speech was the first time Arroyo, who had always defended the armed forces, acknowledged this. “We must wipe this thing from our democratic record,” she said.
Arroyo devoted much of her speech to thanking politicians in the cities and provinces outside the capital of Manila, whose support in the elections last May were a key factor in her administration’s dominance in the races for congressional and local positions.
“Our investment in vital infrastructure is already bearing fruit,” Arroyo said after citing dozens of projects her administration is overseeing.
Arroyo’s list of accomplishments seemed intended to counter complaints by her political opponents and critics, who continue to charge her administration with human rights abuses, election fraud and corruption.
“It is my wish that the Philippines become a developed country in 20 years,” Arroyo said in her hourlong speech, which was interrupted at least 80 times by applause from the administration-controlled House of Representatives. By 2027, she said, “We will have achieved the hallmarks of a modern society.”
“The state of the nation,” she told the Congress, “is strong.”
By most accounts, the Philippine economy has been doing well in the past few years – first-quarter growth this year was 6.9 percent, the peso is now below 45 to the U.S. dollar from a high of more than 50 early in the year, and unemployment and inflation are manageable. Poverty, however, remains widespread, terrorism is still a problem, communist and Islamic insurgencies are hampering development in the countryside, and corruption in the bureaucracy is a major concern.
Arroyo said her administration remains committed to fiscal reforms, pointing out that fiscal discipline was a key administration objective in the years up to the end of her term in 2010. Arroyo and her financial managers are hoping to balance the budget by 2008, relying mainly on improved tax collections.
Concerns have been raised by the government’s missing its tax-collection target for the first half of the year, but Arroyo tried to assuage those fears by firing the head of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the tax-collection agency.
She said the government would invest more in physical infrastructure to improve business confidence as well as expand social services. A top goal for the coming year, she said, was bringing peace to Mindanao, the main island in the southern Philippines where the communist and Islamic insurgencies are strongest.
Arroyo also asked the legislators to pass a law that would modernize the country’s outdated election system.
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