KAYA ho pala marami-rami ang nagandahan sa ika-3ng SONA ni "Pangulong" BS Aquino ay dahil bagay dito ang napakahabang ilong. Pumogi, dahil tumalab ho ang PINOYCCHIO principle, ika nga ng mamamahayag na si Jacinto 'Jing' Paras, dahil humaba ng humaba ang ilong ni "Pangulo" sa haba ng litanya ng kasinungalingang ulat nito sa isa't kalahating oras ba niyang SONA nitong nakaraang ika-23 ng Hulyo.
Numero uno sa kasinungalingan ni "Pangulong" BS y Hocus Pcos ay kawalang banggit sa nakakasulasok na paglabag sa Karapatang Pantao, pagpatay sa mga aktibista na pinipilit lamang namang itaguyod ang karapatan ng mga mamamayan kabilang ang pagtutol sa nakakalasong pagmimina. . Akala mo nasa lupain tayo ng pantasya dahil ni hindi nagpahiwatig si BS Aquino ng pagkilala ng problema ng mga napatay na mga aktibistang alagad ng simbahan, na kabilang pa ang ilang banyaga; ang sinasabing mga paghalay ng ilang opisyal na militar sa katutubong kabataan, atbp. Aba eh huwag sabihing nakalimutan na niya agad ang pagkamatay ni Fr. Fausto Tentorio, pinaslang noong Oktubre 2011, at ang Dutch national na si Willem Geertman na tatlong linggo pa lang napatay nang mag.SONA siya.
Kasinungalingan din ang mala-rosas na kuwento nito ukol daw sa ating maayos daw na peace and order. Ikaw nga ng mamamahayag na si Herman Tiu-Laurel, ang mga crime statistics na ginamit ni BS Aquino ay kumokontra sa pag-amin ng Hepe ng Kapulisan na si Nic Bartolome na na Metro ay tumaas pa nga ng malaki, ng 68% ang mga kaso ng krimen. Kahit nga si Pangulong Joseph Estrada na pumuro daw sa SONA ni BS Aquino ay pinuna sa isang panayam na hindi binanggit ang mataas o tumataas na mga krimen, patunay nga ang pagkakapatay sa kanyang dating tauhan, pinuno ng Philippine Tourism Authority na si Nixon Kua.
Isang mahalaga at nakakasukang kasinungalinan ni BS Aquino noong SONA ay tungkol sa kuryente. Wala raw o wala raw nangyaring krisis sa kuryente. Sabi nga ni Ka Mentong Laurel, bakit pinuri ba itong si Rene Almendras, Kalihim ng Enerhiya, samantalang responsable pa nga ito sa P65 bilyong suliraning sa enerhiya sa Mindanao. At dito sa Luzon ay kawawa ang mga tao dahil P13 kada kilowatt hour ang singil ng Meralco samantalang P5.76/kwh lang ang sa Iligan Light and Power Inc. na mas maliit pang kumpanya.
Pati ang ulat tungkol sa dengue ni "Pangulo" ay mali, kundi kasinungalingan, dahil ang ginamit na istatistika ay mula 2011 imbes na 2012.
Masasabi ring kasinungalingan ang pagpuri ni BS Aquino sa kanilang CCT o Conditional Cash Transfer bilang nakakatulong o mainam daw na programa. Hindi ba kasinungalingan iyon dahil wala pa namang komprehensibong pagaaral sa nagawa nitong CCT na ito, ang CCT na tinutuligsa bilang dole-out at pamumulitikang panghalalan na programa.
Isa pa ay ang pagsasabi na ang mga backlog daw sa kakulangan ng silid-paaralan, silya, at mga libro, NGUNIT walang binanggit sa problemang backlog na 132,000 na mga guro. Anong klaseng edukasyon ang binabalak niya dito? Ang pagkasyahin ang maraming mga mag-aaral sa mga silid o paiksiin ba ang oras ng pag-aaral ng mga bata, o patayin ba sa overtime ang mga kasalukuyang mga guro?
Ang pinakateknikal na kasinungalingan ni BS Aquino ay patungkol sa "creditor" status na daw ng Pilipinas. Maliban pa sa tayo mismo ay napakalaki ng external debt kaya mahirap sabihing creditor na tayo, ang totoo raw ay FOREIGN EXCHANGE lang naman ang pinahiram ng Bangko Sentral at hindi talaga sobrang pera ang ating pinahiram. Teknical na kasinungalingan ala Hocus Pcos na mahirap maintindihan ng hindi mahilig o kulang ang kaalaman sa concerned field. Ngayon, kung wisyo ang paiiralin sa paghusga sa bahagi ng ulat na ito ni "Pangulo," ay baka maging mas malinaw ang kasinungalingan--paano naman nangyari na ang isang bansa kung saan naatim o walang magawa ang pamahalaan sa ilan/maraming mga naghihirap nitong mamamayan sa kalunsuran ay kumakain na ng PAGPAG ay magiging tunay na "creditor" nation????
Kalahating kasinungalingan nakakapanlilang naman ang sinabi nito tungkol sa istatistika ng trabaho sa bansa. Milyon-milyo daw ang trabahong nagawa sa loob ng dalawang tao at tumaba daw ang unemployment rate. Ano ang kabuuang katotohanan? SEASONAL jobs ang nagawa niya subalit BUMABA naman ang Full-time na mga trabaho. Sabihin pa na hindi niya binanggit ang 5.5 milyon na batang trabahador mula sa pagitang ng 5-17 taon gulang kung saan lampas kalahati nito ay nagtratrabaho sa hazardous environments. Sa seasonal o part-time na mga trabaho ay mabubuhaya ba ang tao? Kailan kakain, kailangan magpapagamot o magpapaayos ng ngipin--kapag may trabaho lamang?
Kung totoong lampas 2 milyon ang nagawang maayos na trabaho sa panahon niya, bakit dumarami ang umaalis ng bansa at nag.ri.risk para kumita? Ayon sa Migrante
Lumobo sa 1.35 milyon mula 1.218 milyon ang Pilipinong napilitang mag.OFW, batay sa istatistika ng Oktubre 2011 kumpara sa naunang 12 buwan (Nasa 12-15 milyon na ang kabuuang Pinoy sa labas ng bansa).
Patuloy na pagbaba ng sahod sa pagtatapos ng 2011ang P426 minimim wage sa NCR ay 43% na lang ng P993 family living wage.
Karamihan ng pamilya sa NCR ay nabubuhay na lamang sa P22-P37 kada araw.
Sa kabila ng bilyong remittance mula sa OFW, halos walang serbisyo at proteksyong naasahan ang mga lumalabas na Pinoy sa pamahalaan--tinaas pa ang POEA processing fee mula P18,000 ay ginawang P26,000! (Bale tumataginting na P43.14 bilyon kada taon ang nakukulimbat ng pamahalaan kung 4,500 ang OFW na lumalabas bawa't araw).
Iiwanan ko kayo ng excerpts mula sa SONA na nang mabasa ko (salin sa Ingles) ay naglaro ang isip ko sa pagitan ng iling de katakot-takot at kasiyahan at kasaganahang matatagpuan sa PNOY Pantasya Komiks siguro. Kayo na ho ang humusga:
Every town that has and will be lighted; the highways, bridges, airports, trains, and ports we have built; fair contracts; the peace in our cities and our rural areas; every classroom, desk, and book assigned to a child; every Filipino granted a future—all of these, we have achieved in just two years. We have advanced an agenda of reform in these last two years, a marked contrast to our suffering in the decade that came before.
Mabuti na lamang at nasa wikang Tagalog/Pilipino ang ika-3ng SONA ni "Pangulong" BS Aquino. Kahit papaano, kahit sa paraang pantasya, ay nakakatulong makabuo ng bansa. Lol. :)
_________
Pinagkunan ng background na video:
RVTMalacanang, sa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYmCfZ2aBpk&feature=related
WHEN Gloria Macapagal Arroyo [delivered] her eighth State of the Nation Address at the Batasang Pambansa session hall [last July 28, 2008], she [stood] close to where, three years ago, police commandos say they replaced genuine election returns (ERs) with fake ones in ballot boxes that were being readied for a recount of the 2004 presidential election.
The ER switching at the Batasan had been talked about and reported on since 2005, when Arroyo apologized to the nation for talking to an election official while the votes were being counted, in what has since been known as the "Hello, Garci" scandal.
Recently, some of those who took part in that clandestine operation have sought legal refuge, executing affidavits and taped testimonies of their involvement. Others told friends in confidence, while a few boasted about it in drinking sessions.
They said they switched the ERs of several provinces on three occasions to reconcile these with the figures in the certificates of canvass (COCs) and statements of votes (SOVs) that were tampered with in the 2004 elections.
The stories told by some of the participants and their confidants in the Batasan operation constitute what could be grounds for another impeachment case against Arroyo.
They revive allegations that not only did the President cheat in the 2004 elections, but also tried to cover her tracks by switching the ERs that would have been scrutinized in 2005. At that time, the presidential electoral protest filed by Arroyo's opponent, Fernando Poe Jr., was still pending. Poe died of a heart attack in December 2004, but his widow, Susan Roces, pursued the protest.
Orders came from Ebdane and Franco
Among those who took part in the Batasan operation were members of the Special Action Force (SAF), an elite combat unit of the Philippine National Police
Some of them said they got their orders from Gen. Marcelino Franco, then commanding officer of the SAF. Both Franco and the then chief of the SAF Intelligence and Investigation Division, Supt. Rafael Santiago, were present at a briefing on the operation, SAF sources said.
The SAF sources refused to be named for fear of their safety and those of their families.
"Basta ang initial info po sa amin ay legal operation po ito pero hindi pa namin alam ang nature ng operation (The initial info we got was that it was a legal operation, but we didn't know the nature of the operation)," a SAF commando said. Franco, in turn, got his orders from the former PNP chief, Brig Gen. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., a trusted adviser of Arroyo, SAF sources said.
Ebdane had denied the allegations in previous reports. VERA Files tried getting his side of the story but has not received a reply.
Franco, who has since retired from the PNP and is assistant vice president of Security Bank, also declined to comment on his role in the ER switching operation. Santiago, now senior superintendent and head of the Northern Police District's Intelligence and Investigation Division, ignored requests for an interview.
How the switching happened
SAF sources said the first ER switching operation took place around midnight of Jan. 23, 2005, a Sunday.
Here's what happened based on interviews, taped testimonies, and documents obtained by VERA Files.
A van and three other vehicles arrived at the South Wing entrance of the Batasan complex. Two dozen people alighted from the vehicles, five of them non-commissioned officers, the rest civilians. Santiago was the team leader.
At that time, a makeshift storage room had been erected at the South Wing lobby for ballot boxes containing the returns of the 2004 elections. The boxes had been brought there for the national canvassing.
The go signal came from SAF officers, among them Inspectors Rafael Lero and Samson Kimayong. While some stood guard, others unloaded from the van some 20 to 30 cigarette cartons containing documents.
As a lock picker opened the ballot boxes, SAF commandos said, the others took out the contents of the ballot boxes and replaced them with the documents they brought with them.
After three hours, they packed up, loaded what they took from the ballot boxes into their vehicles and proceeded to the residence of election lawyer Roque Bello in Brookside Hills, Cainta, Rizal.
The operation was repeated six days later on Jan. 29 and on the first weekend of February.
Chief Inspector Ferdinand Ortega, chief of the SAF contingent assigned at the Batasan, was present in all three operations.
Today, Lero and Kimayong have been promoted to senior inspectors and are also assigned at the NPD.
Ortega became commandant of the SAF Training School in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, right after the Batasan operation. Now a superintendent, he heads the SAF operations office in Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan, Taguig.
Ortega and Lero likewise ignored VERA Files' requests for an interview. Contacted by phone, Kimayong denied any knowledge of the 2005 operation.
Returns fabricated by election lawyer Bello
What the SAF brought to the Batasan South Wing were fake election returns allegedly fabricated under the supervision of Bello. They stuffed these into the ballot boxes after they took out the genuine election returns, which they took to Bello's place.
Contacted for his side, Bello said he had already denied involvement in the operation way back in March 2006 when pictures of the alleged manufacturing of ERs in his house appeared in Malaya and Newsbreak. "It's not true," he reiterated his denial.
Two weeks weeks before the Batasan ER switching operation, Poe's widow, Susan Roces, had petitioned the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to replace her husband in the electoral protest he had initiated.
Poe's running mate, Loren Legarda, had filed a similar protest, questioning the proclamation of her rival Noli de Castro and citing irregularities in the canvassing of votes in a number of provinces, many of them in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.
Both Arroyo and De Castro had been proclaimed president and vice president after an administration-dominated Congress acting as National Board of Canvassers declared Arroyo the winner with 12,905,808 votes against closest rival Poe who got 11,782,232 votes. De Castro garnered 15,100,431 votes against Legarda's 14,218,709.
The minority members of the Joint Committee of Congress did not sign the NBC's final report and instead issued "The True Report," which was their own version of the results of the 2004 elections that showed Poe winning over Arroyo by 511,981 votes and Legarda over De Castro by 702,311 votes.
Citing several cases of manufactured election returns, tampered statement of votes and certificates of votes, the minority challenged the joint committee and Congress "to show that the numbers on those questioned certificates of canvass match their corresponding statements of votes and election returns."
"The truth is in those election returns," the minority said.
ERs are documents prepared by boards of election inspectors at the precinct level.
For president and vice president, the ERs are sent to the provincial and city boards of canvassers who then prepare certificates of canvass (COC) supported by statements of votes (SOV). The votes garnered by the candidates in the ER, SOV and COC are supposed to match.
'Hello, Garci'
This, in fact, seemed to be a concern uppermost in Arroyo's mind shortly after the 2004 elections. A portion of the "Hello, Garci" tapes records her voicing her worry to then Comelec Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano.
Following are excerpts from a late evening conversation between Arroyo and Garcillano on June 2, 2004:
GMA: Hello. Dun sa Lanao del Sur tsaka sa Basilan, di raw nagma-match ang SOV sa COC?
Garcillano: Hindi nagma-match? May posibilidad na hindi mag-match kung hindi nila sinunod 'yung individual SOV ng mga munisipyo...
GMA: So, nagma-match?
Garcillano: Oho. Sa Basilan, alam nyo naman ang mga military dun eh, hindi masyadong marunong kasi silang gumawa eh. Katulad ho dun sa Sulu sina General Habacon.
During the congressional canvassing, minority members called the NBC's attention to the disparity in figures reflected in the COCs, which was the basis of the proclamation, and in their copies of SOVs and ERs.
The then presiding officers, Sen. Francis Pangilinan and then Rep. Raul Gonzalez, now justice secretary, brushed aside the minority's concern, and merely responded by saying, "Noted."
Rasalan: Money to tamper returns came from Arroyo
In July 2006, Artemio Rasalan, a self-confessed election operator, executed an affidavit and videotaped confession of his role in what he described as a "grand clandestine operation to head off a looming crisis."
This crisis was expected to erupt once the PET discovered the tampered ERs and the unmatching SOVs and COCs.
Rasalan said Bello had asked him sometime in July 2004 to undertake an operation that would "produce at least 10,000 new election returns duly accompanied by the appropriate Comelec envelopes: officially numbered envelope seals and the official Comelec inks for thumb marking."
He identified nine provinces the ERs of which had to be replaced. These are Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Sultan Kudarat and Saranggani in Mindanao and Isabela in Luzon.
Rasalan quoted the election lawyer as saying that it was Ebdane who engaged Bello's services on orders of Arroyo. Two months later, Rasalan said, Roque told him he was coordinating closely with Garcillano.
"He (Roque) said the money for this special operation will be provided by PGMA [Arroyo's initials]. As a matter of fact, a few days thereafter, I was told by Attorney Bello that Commissioner Garcillano met with PGMA at her La Vista home to receive the money," Rasalan said.
They started making the fake ERs in mid-October 2004, Rasalan stated. It took them two months to finish the work. He then delivered the 10,000 fabricated ERs to Bello's home in Brookside Hills Subdivision, Cainta, Rizal for the printing of the correct original serial numbers.
With the 10,000 fake ERs ready, the last step was to put them inside the ballot boxes guarded by the SAF at the Batasan building so that when the PET started opening the ballot boxes, the figures there would match those in the tampered COCs and SOVs.
Special Action Force of the Philippines
IT WAS NO accident that it was the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police that penetrated the Batasan Pambansa and stuffed the ballot boxes with fake election returns to make it look like Gloria Arroyo won the 2004 elections.
Established in 1983 initially to help combat insurgency and later to "destroy enemy forces that undermine the nation's stability," the police commandos are trained as a rapid deployment force and to "noiselessly operate in the shadows."
In its 25-year history, the elite unit has not been impervious to the country's political upheavals. The SAF joined the February 1986 people power revolution that followed the defection of its founder, then Armed Forces vice chief of staff and Philippine Constabulary-Integrated National Police chief Fidel V. Ramos, and toppled President Ferdinand Marcos.
But in early 2005, some of the SAF's own members said they undermined democracy when the unit switched the election returns on orders of former PNP chief Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.
Ebdane knew fully well and harnessed the unit's commando skills. After all, he had served as SAF commander from August 1989 to February 1991.
It also helped that the SAF was one of the units securing the House.
Had no one talked, the operation that took place on Jan. 23 and 29 and the first weekend of February 2005 would have been SAF's secret.
Franco 'principled,' but 'pragmatic' too
His colleagues describe Chief Supt. Marcelino Franco, who approved the operation as SAF commander at the time, as a "very serious, principled and highly professional" officer. But they also said that as a leader, he can be "very pragmatic."
Franco would later be implicated in the alleged plan of the Marines and Army Scout Rangers in February 2006 to withdraw support from Arroyo.
In his affidavit, former Armed Forces chief Hermogenes Esperon, then the commanding general of the Philippine Army, said that his two classmates in the Philippine Military Academy (Class '74)-Franco and Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda, then commandant of the Philippine Marines-had asked him to join them in their plan to withdraw support from Arroyo.
Esperon said this happened in a late-night meeting on Feb. 23 at the residence of then AFP chief Generoso Senga. He said Franco confirmed that "most of the elements of SAF-PNP will sympathize with those who will march and withdraw support from PGMA."
Military officers accused of planning the February 2006 protest activity said Franco knew first-hand that Arroyo cheated in the elections. Unlike those who are detained and being tried in court martial for mutiny, no charges were ever filed against Franco.
SAF sources said prior to the Batasan ER switching operation, Franco met with Ebdane and Elections Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano. He then entrusted the task to Supt. Rafael Santiago, the commanding officer of SAF's Intelligence and Investigation Division.
Santiago, in turn, brought in young police officers, including Inspectors Rafael Lero and Samson Kimayong.
Santiago is said to be the quintessential intelligence agent. "Now you see him, now you don't," a police officer said.
Chief Inspector Ferdinand Ortega, who headed the SAF unit in the Batasan during the ER switching operation, appears to be well-liked in police circles. A colleague finds him "nakakatawang mayabang (amusing and a braggart)." He is affectionately called "Bungo" or skull, after the famous Baguio City police officer, Bobby Ortega, who was portrayed in two movies by the late actor Rudy Fernandez.
About 6,000 genuine election returns were replaced with manufactured returns in the January to February 2005 operations, a SAF source said.
A fourth operation was planned, but Chief Inspector Jimmy Laguyo, who by then had replaced Ortega at the SAF's unit at the Batasan, refused to cooperate, the source said. Franco had Laguyo transferred to Abra.
The fourth operation never materialized. The unit was kept preoccupied by a failed jailbreak at the SAF headquarters on March 14, 2005 in which suspected Abu Sayyaf members were killed. The Commission on Human Rights had ordered an investigation of the SAF shortly after the incident.
Reward for Batasan operators
The efforts of the SAF commandos who participated in the Batasan operation did not go unrewarded. The enlisted personnel were each given P10,000 one month after the operation.
"May natanggap kaming sobre na ibinigay sa amin na patago na sabi nila, 'Ito panggastos niyo. Ito 'yung reward natin sa operation natin sa Batasan (We were each secretly handed an envelope and told, 'This is for your expenses; this is our reward for the Batasan operation),'" one of them said.
He added, "Nung binuksan ko po 'yung envelope, naglalaman po ng P10,000. Hindi ko alam kung matuwa ako doon o matakot na gastusi 'yun kasi 'yun nga sa operation na 'yun (When I opened the envelope, it contained P10,000. I didn't know if I should be happy or be afraid to spend it because it was for that operation)."
Another enlisted policeman said they were summoned to the SAF office for the "good news." He said the higher-up who handed them the envelopes advised them, "Huwag na lang kayo maingay. Sa atin-atin lang ito (Don't talk about this. Let's keep this among ourselves)."
'Souvenirs' of election returns switching
The switching of the election returns at the Batasan was caught on video through a mobile phone camera. ABS-CBN had shown the video, but it went largely unnoticed.
But a SAF member who took part in the operation also has in his possession evidence-he calls it "souvenir"- of the operation: copies of the genuine election returns.
He said he removed five envelopes containing the returns from the van he was riding after the team left the Batasan compound in February 2005 and brought them home with him. Some of his colleagues did likewise.
The SAF member said he got curious and decided to inspect the contents of the boxes that had not been sealed with masking tape. "Yun 'yung election returns. Dahil po ako isang botante, alam ko po ang style ng election return (They were election returns. I'm a voter, so I know the style of an election return)," he said.
VERA Files was shown the envelopes containing the returns.
After the recordings of the wiretapped conversations between Arroyo and Garcillano on the cheating in the 2004 elections became public, the police commandos involved in the Batasan operation realized the value of the video and election returns in their hands.
Some of them said they all wanted to make public the evidence they had but feared this would endanger their lives and those of their families. They then thought of relocating abroad but they needed money to do that.
Sen. Loren Legarda, who was then protesting Noli de Castro's proclamation as vice president, said in an interview she met with Joel Pinawin, a first lieutenant in the Army Reserve Corps who acted as liaison for the SAF personnel. She was shown a video of ballot boxes being moved at the Batasan but said the video was rather dark.
"But they were selling it to me," she said.
Legarda does not remember the amount that was asked, but a source close to the SAF personnel said the group had hoped to raise P200 million, or P10 million each for the 20 people involved in the operation.
Said Legarda: "Where will I get the money? Kakatalo ko lang. Dinaya ako, malungkot, walang trabaho. Wala akong pera (I just lost. I was cheated, sad, jobless and penniless). I told them to do it for the country."
Election returns now with Comelec
The tampering and swapping of the election returns became evident when the Supreme Court, acting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal hearing Legarda's election protest, opened the ballot boxes for Nalindong and Taraka towns in Lanao del Sur.
The copies of the returns that were given to the Commission on Elections, National Citizens Movement for Free Elections and the dominant and minority parties showed opposition standard-bearer Fernando Poe Jr. and Legarda leading Arroyo and De Castro. But the returns in the ballot boxes retrieved from the Batasan showed the opposite.
Despite the discrepancies, the Supreme Court dismissed last January Legarda's petition, citing insufficient evidence of fraud.
Poe's suit against Arroyo before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET) was dismissed on March 29, 2005. The tribunal said his widow, actress Susan Roces, could not replace him as petitioner because "she would not immediately and directly benefit from the outcome should it be determined that the declared president did not truly get the highest number of votes."
The returns from the 2004 elections, including the fabricated ones, are no longer at the House of Representatives. Last February, shortly after he became speaker of the House, Rep. Prospero Nograles ordered the ballot boxes containing the returns moved from the South Wing to the Commission on Elections. The makeshift room where they were once stored has been dismantled.
Last March, former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. called for an investigation of the 2005 switching of election returns at the Batasan.
***Note: All additional photos of Gloria Arroyo, Fernando Poe Jr., Noli de Castro, Loren Legarda, Susan Roces and Virgilio Garcillano have been added by Jesusa Bernardo. Additional ER tampering photos were directly taken from the Philippine Center of Investigative Journalism website.
SPECIAL NOTE: When using the CiteMAT citation generator for this reprint article, you need to manually input/replace the author's name as "Ellen Tordesillas".
Gloria Arroyo's forthcoming State of the Nation Address will again be a pack of lies. Only 14 out of every 100 Filipinos believe there will be any truth in the scheduled July 28, 2008 SONA, compared to the 86% percent who either disbelieve or remain undecided.
The figures come from the latest Ulat ng Bayan research survey of independent public opinion polling firm Pulse Asia. Not counting the undecided, the marked predominance of those who dismiss Arroyo's 2008 SONA as not truthful compared to those thinking it will be truthful is seen across all demographic levels and social classes. The disparity of the number of skeptics versus those who tend to believe ranges from nearly 100 percent to over 400 percent in all categories of the respondents in the nationwide survey held from July 1-14, 2008.
A clear majority of those from classes A, B and C (36%) think that the scheduled SONA of Arroyo will not be truthful while only less than half (15%) believe it will be truthful. Among those in the D class, 41 % are skeptics while a mere 13% are believers.
In terms of age groups, the greatest disparity is registered in the 25-34 year-old group, with 48% thinking the SONA will be fictitious while a very small percentage (11%) think it will be factual. Even among government personnel, an overwhelming majority is skeptical whether the SONA of Arroyo: 39% believe it will be untruthful while only 15% think it will be truthful.
Among the college graduates or those with post-college education, the percentage of those who believe that Arroyo will lie in the SONA is much higher over those thinking she will not lie (34% vs. 12%). This belief is shared by those without any formal education, although the disparity is higher: 43% are skeptics while only 16% tend to believe.
Almost the same total number of Filipinos have adjudged Arroyo to have been untruthful in her past SONAs compared to those who think she has been truthful (14% vs. 13%). According to Pulse Asia's media release, the "currently low proportion of people (14%) who still believe that her SONA this year will be a truthful one" is a point of concern for the Philippines. There has been significant drop in public indecision over Arroyo's SONA and the "low proportion of believers in her SONA's truthfulness ...cannot possibly represent much political capital for her and her administration."
