Aquino’s 'straight path' a Work in Progress

Media attention has largely concentrated on President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III's detailed allegations in his first State of the Nation Address of extravagance and profligacy in Gloria Arroyo's administration

The "expose" has been the subject of many column inches since the speech to the 15th Congress on Monday and little is to be gained by devoting more cyber space to issue.

Less attention-grabbing but more significant has been criticism of Aquino for his "lack of vision."

Bishop Leonardo Medroso of Tagbilaran for one has called for a clear articulation of how the new president sees Philippine society and how his administration will work towards those goals.

It is a fair question. A statement of vision anchors an institution's decisions on the principles and values it chooses to uphold. It gives focus and basis for tracking progress, success and failure.

"When you become very specific and stuck on actions, whether of past officials or your own government, there is the danger of becoming myopic," Bishop Medroso warns.

Just before the address, the bishop told me that he would like the president "to define what the Philippines will be" when his term is finished. Following the speech, the bishop, who represents Eastern Visayas bishops in the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Permanent Council, said Aquino's speech had failed to do that.

It is disappointing to the Church which has devoted significant time and energy in planning assemblies to fleshing out and articulating its own "vision-mission" statement.

Bishops, priests and other Church personnel gathered with lay Church members from around the country for the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (PCP-II) in 1991 for example.

Council document drafters, drawing on delegates' input, summed up their vision of Philippines society. It said they would work so "That all may have life."

"We shall have to create a free nation:

where human dignity and solidarity

are respected and promoted;

where moral principles prevail in socio-economic life and structure;

where justice, love, and solidarity are the inner driving forces of development.

"We shall have to build a sovereign nation:

where every tribe and faith are respected;

where diverse tongues and traditions work together for the good of all;

where membership is a call to participation and involvement