President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is expected to highlight in her State of the Nation Address this afternoon progress in the implementation of priority infrastructure facilities throughout the country, among them the Bacolod and Kabankalan airports, amid protests that she has failed to uplift the lives of the poor.

Presidential brother-in-aw Rep. Ignacio Arroyo Jr. (Neg. Occ., 5th district) said the president will put emphasis on her accomplishments and bare future projects that will further address the education, health and livelihood needs of the people.

He said infrastructure projects being built in the Visayas are designed to boost tourism so more jobs and income can be earned.

Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra said he hopes that whatever the President promises in her SONA will come true. More teeth should be put into the implementation of promised projects and strict accounting of government funds spent should be enforced, he said.

Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon said that, aside from big infrastructure projects, emphasis should be placed on programs that will assist the ordinary people.

Rep. Jose Carlos Lacson (Neg. Occ., 3rd District) said he would like to see more emphasis on education in the President's SONA.

Lacson said some call centers are pirating employees from other firms instead of hiring new applicants because of lack of qualified people.

This shows that the demand is big and the supply of personnel is short, he said. That is why emphasis must be placed on schools producing functional and literate Filipinos, he said.

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia expects the SONA to center on the gains of the Arroyo administration and the substantial effects of the super region concept.

"It is now a matter of sustaining the momentum and accelerating the pace of progress and development," he said, noting that the stock market and the peso are experiencing an all time high.

DE VENECIA BID

Lacson and Arroyo are supporting the bid of Jose de Venecia for another term as House Speaker against Cebu's Pablo Garcia, and said they believe they have the numbers.

They bucked suggestions that voting for the House Speaker should be done through secret balloting, stressing that congressmen must be accountable to their constit

PROTESTS SET

The president's SONA will be delivered amid protests against what militant groups call the failure of her administration to address the needs of the poor, Bayan Negros said in a press statement.

"The poor masses have had enough of politician's sweet promises. Since the time of Diosdado Macapagal until Gloria's term, the bitter pill of full-scale liberalization has not uplifted the conditions of both the rural and urban poor," the press statement added.

This morning sugar workers will picket the Department of Labor and Employment in Bacolod City at 9 a.m. to demand higher wages and better labor conditions, while members of Anakbayan, the League of Filipino Students, and Teatro Obrero will hold their state of the youth address in front of the Fountain of Justice at the Bacolod City Hall at 11 a.m.

BAYAN and its allied organizations will also converge at the front of Provincial Capitol in Bacolod and march at 2 p.m. towards the Fountain of Justice where they will stage their protest.

Ben Solilapsi of Alab Katipunan said they will also deliver their counter SONA during a street march today.

Despite the economic boom under the Arroyo Administration, Solilapsi said 60 percent of Filipinos still suffer from hunger and poverty.

"We will also protest the human security act. It should be reviewed because it is prone to abuse and will only violate our constitutional rights," he said.*CPG

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