Critics of President Arroyo, in their immediate reactions, belittled her State of the Nation Address Monday.

“It was ‘glass half-filled’ speech with scant mention of the ‘glass half-empty’ part of the picture. There was no mention of corruption in government and the human rights situation,” said Sen. Francis Escudero.

Escudero also said he doubts data presented by President Arroyo on the construction of 95,000 classrooms, 60,000 teachers, eight million jobs, and two million hectares of irrigated lands.

The young senator said however that he agreed with the proposals presented by Mrs. Arroyo:

• "condonation of 42 billion pesos in obligations of CARP beneficiaries;
• continuation of the hunger mitigation program;
• concentrating on revenue collection efficiency;
• a knowledge-based economy as the way of the future; and,
• exploring the settlement of conflicts via talks instead of bullets, with exception of terrorists.”

Escudero however could not help himself but also twit the president on her claim of hard work in the presidency.

“There isn’t a day I do not work at my job or a waking moment when I do not think through a work-related problem. Even my critics cannot begrudge the long hours I put in,” said Arroyo in her SONA.

To which Escudero said: “To be fair, masipag naman talaga siya (Pangulong Arroyo)…kung saan nga lang ginagamit ang sipag, ibang usapan na iyon. And I hope her last line meant goodbye.”

“Best actress”

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said Mrs. Arroyo “deserves the best actress award for portraying a good, honest and productive president.”

“Major disconnect between PGMA's speech and the reality being experienced by the Filipino people . Like a student being kicked out of school for failing too many subjects giving a speech at the graduation claiming to be an honor student!” said Cayetano.

He said that the president, in presenting the situation of the country, left out an important data – “how much was stolen during her administration.”

Cayetano, a member of Sen. Manny Villar's Nacionalista Party, also said that the president was “deliberately vague or silent on issues of cha-cha (Charter change).”

“In the end, nagbuhat ng sariling bangko, nangantiyaw sa kritiko at niloko ang tao,” said Cayetano.

“Hit and miss”

Sen. Loren Legarda, meanwhile, saw Arroyo’s SONA “with less gimmickry” compared to the previous ones.

Legarda said the 2009 SONA continued to be “a hit-and-miss affair.”

“She talked about inflation of 1.5% being the lowest since 1966, but glossed over the fact that prices of commodities go down when people, due to poverty, are unable to buy goods or to avail of services,” said Legarda.

“Somehow, the glowing image painted by the President of our country does not translate to tangible improvement in the lives of our people. Even if foreign direct investments increased 15 times and, with OFW remittances, purportedly doubled foreign exchange reserves, did they put food on the table of every Filipino family?” said Legarda.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan echoed Legarda’s sentiment.

““Yet the painful truth is that data shows poverty levels have not been reduced; they have, in fact, increased over her watch. Pervasive corruption has not been addressed, and our people, in the thousands, continue to leave the country daily, having lost hope of having a better future in the Philippines,” said Pangilinan.

Pangilinan also said credit for economy’s increased GNP and resilience amid the global economic downturn should go to the overseas Filipino workers, and not to the president.

“The successes proclaimed by PGMA sadly do not resonate with the vast majority of the people who fail to feel the impact in their daily lives. Her speech has not given us reason to look to the future with renewed optimism and hope. We will have to look elsewhere for this,” said Pangilinan.

“Just lower prices”

Sen. Manuel Roxas II, meanwhile, shrugged off the indirect reference to him by the president in her SONA.

Pointing to her decision to pass a tougher Cheaper Medicines Law, Mrs. Arroyo gave this piece of advice: "To those who want to be President, this advice: If you want something done, do it hard, do it well. Don’t pussyfoot. Don't pander. Don't say bad words in public. Just do it."

The verbal swipe drew laughs and loud applause from the audience inside the Batasang Pambansa as it reminded them of Roxas's expletive during an anti-Charter change rally in Makati last year.

Minutes after Arroyo's speech, Roxas sent the following message via his Twitter account: "Gloria, I have to say bad words in public because of bad deeds done in secret."

In a statement sent to media later, Roxas said: ““Hindi ko pinapansin ang mga ganyang banat. Ang pinapansin ko ay ang hinaing ng ating mga kababayan. Ang gusto ko lang naman ay maging abot-kaya ang presyo ng mga gamot para sa ating mga kababayan. Gawin na lang niya ang trabaho niya na pababain ang presyo ng gamot.”

Erap answers

The camp of former president Joseph Estrada meanwhile dismissed the statements of Mrs. Arroyo in her SONA comparing her administration’s performance to that of her predecessor’s.

“Compare this in 2001, when some of my current critics were driven out by people power, Asia was then surging but our country was on the brink of bankruptcy,” said Arroyo in her speech to the joint session of both chambers of Congress.

“We were economically better off during the Estrada administration than this present government. Under the Estrada administration, the Philippines was the first country to recover from the Asian Financial Crisis. The Estrada administration improved GNP from 0% in 1998 to almost 4% in 2001. Meanwhile the GDP is expected to hit 0% this year under Arroyo,” said Margaux Salcedo, Estrada spokesperson in a statement.

Salcedo countered that the country was “at its worst economically under Arroyo.”

Salcedo cited data reportedly from Estrada’s budget secretary Benjamin Diokno which said “that the economy grew at an average of 4.09 percent during the period of Arroyo (from 2001 to 2009). That is much less than Estrada's performance of 4.7 percent (3.4 percent GDP growth in 1999 and 6.0 percent in 2000) although slightly better than Ramos's average of 3.6 percent from 2003 to 2008 or Aquino's average of 3.34 percent from 1986 to 1992.”

Estrada’s spokesperson also shot at Mrs. Arroyo on her statement which apparently also referred to the former president who has said that he will pursue the prosecution of Mrs. Arroyo one she steps down.

“Those who live in glass houses should cast no stones. Those who should be in jail should not threaten it, especially if they have been there,” said Arroyo in her SONA.

To which, Salcedo replied: “Apparently GMA is admitting that she is afraid that she will be jailed.”