President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address was lauded by her allies in Negros Occidental and Bacolod for her vision beyond Metro Manila, but Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra said the people must be able to feel the effects of what she has promised to be convinced.

Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon yesterday said the projects the president enumerated in her speech, at least, were those reached in consultation with local governments.

The projects she mentioned were beautiful but need the cooperation of everybody to succeed. If even only 70 percent of the programs she mentioned in her SONA are fulfilled that would already be good, he said.

Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia said the SONA was a very good speech, it was not filled with motherhood statements and rhetoric, but with very substantive and detailed information on her various programs and projects throughout the country.

Leonardia said he especially appreciated the president’s statement that her super region concept was designed to spread development away from an inequitable concentration in Metro Manila because it is not just Manila that is the Philippines.

It made everybody feel involved and part of this nation, he said.

Navarra said the President made the usual promises of improving the lives of the people. What is important is to actually put them in place, and let the people see, actually be convinced and feel the effects of what she was saying, he said.

Rep. Ignacio Arroyo (Neg. Occ., 5 th district) said the president’s outlining of her accomplishments in the SONA goes to show that she delivered on her promises, and will deliver more progress for the country.

Let us now join hands in helping our fellow Filipinos, Arroyo said.

“Super butigon (liar), that’s how we describe GMA and her SONA” Ben Solilapsi of Alab Katipunan said.

Felipe Levy Gelle, Bayan Negros secretary general, said Arroyo’s eco-tourism vision for Central Philippines is a death chamber for the poor, because it will cause their dislocation.

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