President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo yesterday warned that she will not stand idly when anyone gets in the way of the national interest and tries to block her national vision.

“From where I sit, I can tell you, a president can always be as strong as she wants to be,” she said drawing applause and a standing ovation during her state of the nation address at the opening of the 14 th Congress.

The President outlined before the joint houses of Congress her P1.7 trillion Medium Term Public Investment Program for various parts of the country in her hour-long SONA.

“I stand in the way of no one’s ambition, I only ask that no one stand in the way of the people’s well being and the nation’s progress,” she said.

It is time to move forward for a better future that the people so desperately want, she said.

The elections are over, it is time to govern with wisdom, compassion, vision and patriotism, she said.

The president also again stressed the importance of the super regions that she unveiled in her SONA last year “ to spread development away from an inequitable concentration in Metro Manila. It is not just Manila that is the Philippines,” she said.

TOURISM SUPER REGION

Negros Occidental and Oriental fall under Central Philippines that is envisioned by the President to become a tourism super region.

She said the natural wonders of the Central Philippines will be protected while government provides the means to travel to those destinations.

“The Bacolod-Silay Airport, near the nature park we declared in Northern Negros, is completed and just awaiting the access road requested by (Bacolod Rep.) Monico Puentavella,” she also said.

A contract for upgrading the Dumaguete airport in Oriental Negros has also been awarded, she said.

A 100-megawatt energy gap looms in the Visayas in 2009, Arroyo also said. The Korea Electric plant in Cebu will plug in 200 megawatts only in 2010 so there’s a one year gap, she said.

Meanwhile, three power barges will supply 100 megawatts and the Panay diesel power plant will increase its run from 70 megawatts to 100, she said.

ON TERRORISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Arroyo also called for tougher laws against political killings and warned that the military would not be immune from prosecution.

“It is never right and always wrong to fight terror with terror,” she said.

Arroyo urged Congress to pass laws to protect witnesses from lawbreakers and law enforcers, laws to guarantee swift justice from more empowered special courts, laws to impose harsher penalties for political killings, and laws reserving the harshest penalties for the rogue elements in the uniformed services who betray public trust and bring shame to the greater number of their colleagues who are patriotic are needed, she said.

“We must wipe this stain from our democratic record,” she said.

MEDICINES FOR SENIOR CITIZENS

To bring cheaper medicines to the people, the President asked Congress to pass the Cheaper Medicines Bill that was almost enacted in June.

“Almost is not good enough. Let's give our people meaningful, affordable choices, from abroad and here in the Philippines,” she said.

She also asked Congress to pass legislation that brings improved long-term care for senior citizens.

ELECTION REFORM

Together with economic prosperity is the need to strengthen our institutions of government, she also said.

“Let's start with election reform. We have long provided funds for computerization. We look forward to the modernization of voting, counting and canvassing,” she said.

She also asked Congress to fund poll watchdogs and to enact a stronger law against election-related violence.

P1.7 TRILLION PLAN

Arroyo said what she outlined in her SONA is a sampler of her P1.7 trillion Medium Term Public Investment Program that will be funded from state revenues, with tax reforms and firm orders to BIR and Customs to hit their targets and P300 billion from state corporations.

The balance will come from government financial institutions, private sector investments, local government equity and our bilateral and multilateral partners, she said.

“We were able to strengthen our economy because of the fiscal reforms that we adopted at such great cost to me in public disapproval. But I would rather be right than popular,” she said.

Our fundamentals are paying off in huge leaps in investment, most in sustainable enterprises, she said, stressing that the state of the nation today is strong.

She said it is her wish that most of her vision will be fully achieved when she steps down.

“The fundamentals of this vision will by then be permanently rooted, its progress well advanced and its direction firmly fixed with our reforms already bearing fruit. All that will remain for my successor is to gather the harvest. He or she will have an easier time of it than I did,” she said.*CPG

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