A full video of Pres. Gloria Arroyo's 2009 State of the Nation Address (SONA), given on July 27, has been posted on Facebook, prompting Filipinos online to wonder what happened to the "early warning, forecasting, and monitoring systems" for typhoons which had been "improved," according to the President's speech.
A full excerpt from Pres. Arroyo's address reads:
"As a country in the path of typhoons and in the Pacific Rim of Fire, we must be as prepared as the latest technology permits to anticipate natural calamities when that is possible; to extend immediate and effective relief when it is not….The mapping of flood- and landslide-prone areas is almost complete. Early warning, forecasting and monitoring systems have been improved, with weather tracking facilities in Subic, Tagaytay, Mactan, Mindanao, Pampanga.
"We have worked on flood control infrastructure like those for Pinatubo, Agno, Laoag, and Abucay, which will pump the run off waters from Quezon City and Tondo flooding Sampaloc. This will help relieve hundreds of hectares in this old city of its age-old woe.
"Patuloy naman iyong sa Camanava, dagdag sa Pinatubo, Iloilo, Pasig-Marikina, Bicol River Basin, at mga river basin ng Mindanao."
Several comments have been posted under the video, including one that says, "Somebody should have shouted, 'liar' during her SONA, much like the U.S. Congress fiasco with Obama. This time, it may have been very true."
The administration has been receiving criticism for its slow response in the wake of typhoon Ondoy, when people were caught unprepared and nearly 80% of Manila was submerged under water.
