Critique of President Aquino's 2014 SONA
The SONA highlighted the achievements of the government on education and social services, economy improvement, and calamity efforts, among others. Many of these achievements were gained through years of planning, and are products of plans mentioned in the past SONAs, and are hoped to be sustained as evidenced by the plans presented in this year's SONA.
Education and Social Services. Through the help of DAP, the government was able to help many TESDA scholars achieve their goals of graduating and getting employed. It seems that the administration has furthered their plans of supporting academic scholars until they are 18 years old as part of the 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program) mentioned by Aquino in the past SONA. However, out of the 223,615 TESDA beneficiaries who have graduated, only 146,731 are employed. Meaning about 35% of the graduates remain unemployed. It is clear that although the training is provided, the transition from school to work has not been improved adequately.
Economy Improvement. The Philippines has become one of the leading countries in Asia for its growth in GDP and GNP. Employment rate has also been improving. Poverty incidence has also reduced to 24.9% in the first quarter of 2013. However, one cannot take increase in GDP and GNP at face value because it is evident that that the increase is mostly contributed by the increase in consumption and government spending. Investment remains limited, as shown by the relatively low foreign direct investment (FDI) compared to the rest of Southeast Asia. The government is yet to improve local and foreign investment in the country.
Calamity Efforts. 3.5 billion pesos was alloted for disaster relief efforts in response to the Bohol-Cebu earthquake and Typhoon Yolanda. A large part of the funds were spent on infrastructure and providing jobs. The efforts are effective, despite being untimely and controversial. However, the large amount budgeted to repair damages could have been better spent in actually preventing or at least mitigate adverse effects of natural disasters.