SANA or SONA?

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's SONA should have been dubbed as SANA because it contained all the wish-list of the government under her administration: more budget for the kawawang housewife, more income generating enterprises for the 41-year old padre de pamilua, etc, etc.

In fairness to PGMA, this year's SONA was more in touch with reality such as the worsenign economic crisis and the poverty facing even the unborn Filipino. However, with her honesty came the glaring realization that the Philippines is indeed a country in desperate need of economic reform but VAT should not be one of them.

On the contrary, PGMA even highlighted the Value Added Tax as the enactment that saved the country from further economic crisis. PGMA should say this to the millions of Filipinos who have to pay an extra 12% VAT for their Jollibee meal everyday and for every Filipino who has to pay the additional VAT slapped on by professional like DOCTORS to their patients.

The reality is that while the government has been using VAT allegedly to subsidize the poor, the same VAT is making life HELL for millions of Filipinos. And if PGMA is true to her words, then the VAT is subsidizing ARMM officials who are living in sheer abundance despite the region being the poorest in the country. Check our their homes---sorry ----mansions at Juna Subdivision and you will see that every Muslim in the ARMM should not be living in poverty at all.