The final State of the Nation Address

To be fair to the Aquino administration, they have done a number of praiseworthy accomplishments during his tenure and it is but proper and fitting that he display and emphasize it on his final State of the Nation Address (SONA) speech. 

However, there are also damages inflicted and unresolved problems that will most probably be left by this administration come his term’s final day. One of the most deplorable issues that the administration was unable to resolve up until now was the setback in the transportation sector. 

The administration remains pretty much optimistic that the reforms implemented during his term will soon bear its fruit which will soon be proved to be valuable to the public the the years to come.

As imperfect as our President may be, as shown by the unsettled mishaps in the transportation sector, President Aquino calmly claimed that they have done their part and the rest of the problems were created by the previous administration.

There were unclear answers and topics which were spoken by the president such as, deteriorating mass railways. There are also some issue regarding congested airways which was already rehabilitated which enabled the Philippine carriers to lift the ban enforced by the United States and European safety watchdogs.

Another magnificent thing initiated by President Aquino and his men was the Public-Private Partnership Program (PPP), though it was also bombarded with a lot of criticisms. 

Despite of that, 10 projects were awarded thus far including big-ticket railways, toll roads and the most recently constructed world-class airport in Visayas.

President Aquino may have been well decorated by a number of remarkable feats and accomplishments during his reign, but all of these were overshadowed by his failure to find concrete solutions to most of the existing and most troublesome national setbacks today. 

To cite a great example of such, the Aquino administration have miserably failed to ease the restricted transportation access in Metro Manila, which is considered as the central hub for the country’s economic progress. It is also the place where most of the Filipino population is densely located.

The Aquino administration only have a few more months left in its term but they still have a lot of catching up to do when it comes to the development of our transportation infrastructures. LRT (Light Rail Transit) Line 1 have been pestered by a series of machine breakdowns. 

Subsequent to that, the PNR (Philippine National Railways) also had it fair share of problems when its operations were suspended last May 2015 after the coaches got derailed allegedly due to stolen railway materials.

But the most prominent dilemma being faced by the Philippine transportation today is the MRT (Metro Rail Transit ) Line 3, almost 16 year of age, which crosses EDSA from time to time, serving close to 500,000 million passengers everyday. Its designed load capacity is only 350, 000 which often tends to be neglected, resulting to continuous malfunctioning of the train system, shutdowns and long line of commuters.

The news about the suspension of former MRT 3 General Manager Al Vitangcol III and him getting charged with graft isn’t going to help either. 

We need more positive actions coming from the Aquino administration for us to finally conclude that term work, was a “job well done”.