"PNoy's 2nd SONA"

July 25, 2011 

Second State of the Nation Address 

Unfortunately, we, students didn’t have a chance to watch the SONA of our dear president. In our opinion, classes should be suspended because it’s important for us to know what PNoy’s says in his SONA but PNoy didn’t declare any announcement for the cancellation of classes and no work at that date. For us it’s like… “parang sinabi niya na rin nawalang kwenta pakinggan ang kanyang SONA at ang lahat ng kanyang pinagsabisabi” because he doesn’t want anyone to know what will he gonna say.

The State of the Nation Address of President Benigno Aquino III was delivered at the joint session of the Congress of the Philippines on July 26, 2011. The speech can be summarized into two parts. The first part enumerates the problems and alleged anomalies of the past administration. This contributes why PNoy feels that he is facing dilemma to deliver his promises. The second part includes the solutions to the problems that the nation is facing right now. He stated strategies he wants to adopt to solve some issues in order to promote peace for the nation. PNoy explained the kind of government he wants to have.

We all have different reactions or feedback on PNoy’s SONA. Some are satisfied. Some are not. Others give importance, while the others just don’t care.

 Let me share some of what we have noticed and some of our evaluation on his 2^nd SONA:

[x] First thing that we noticed was the language he used. Unlike the past presidents, Pnoy delivered his speech in FILIPINO LANGUAGE so that Filipinos will understand his statement clearly and precisely. We are impressed to our president for using our own language in delivering his speech.

[x] He also stated all of his achievements and future plans for the Philippines.

[x] First topic he discussed was the wang-wang thing. It is very obvious to us that this is a mission accomplish for our president. PNoy used the word wang-wang consistently. He used it to mean “abuse of power”.  

“Narito po ang halimbawa ng resulta ng ating kampanya kontra wang-wang sa sistema. Nitong taong ito, taumbayan na mismo ang nagsabi, nabawasan ang nagugutom sa kanila. Mula 20.5% na self-rated hunger noong Marso, bumaba na ito sa 15.1% nitong Hunyo, katumbas ng isang milyong pamilyang Pilipinong nagugutom dati, pero ngayon ay nakakakain na nang tama kada araw.”

[x] It is also discussed about the taxes paid by Filipinos. We now can see where the taxes were going. We now have funds for our needs.

Pinoy’s also campaigning for paying the right amount of tax; he also said “hindi lang po gobyerno, kundi kapwa natin Pilipino ang pinagkakaitan sa hindi pagbabayad ng tamang buwis”.

[x] Next is the Spratly Island. Yes, it is ours and he, his excellence, promised he will defend our country’s territory and sovereignty. 

[x] We are also impressed that he didn’t mention anything about Hacienda Luisita. It is a great decision not to include it since it is owned by the Cojuangcos and not by Philippines. Any decisions and problems that deals with Hacienda Luisita must be solved privately by the respective owners.

[x] PNoy also mentioned about the Filipino characteristic of “culture of negativism” and “crab mentality”. We don’t think that us Filipinos can change these characteristics since it is already in our nature.

“Let us stop pulling our fellow man down. Let us put an end to our crab mentality. Let us make the effort to recognize the good that is being done.” 

“Let us end the culture of negativism; let us uplift our fellow Filipinos at every opportunity.” 

“If you see something right, do not think twice—praise it.”

[x] We also noticed that most of the topics discussed in his first state of the nation were not included in the second one.

There is one thing that we like about PNoy, he’s try to eliminate all corrupt government official in our country. He always focus on that problem because what’s the sense of improving if there always the hindrance to our success. This hindrance is, the number 1 public enemy of the country , CORRUPT people on the country.

We hope that his administration will succeed in their plans so that our nation will be free from any corruption.

• And what are his new promises now?

It is more likely to fulfill his first promises during the first sona because the people are waiting for improvement and not for promises.

 Let’s give him more chance to prove himself to us, to prove to us his commitment to our country.

Still, President Aquino still has a long way to go. There are ups and downs that he might face during his journey but he has to be strong for our country and for the people.

“KAYO ANG BOSS KO”

-PNoy

For those who missed the President’s SONA, you may watch it below  (click the link)

Speech SONA 2011 via Livestream

"Evaluation on Economic Programs of President Noynoy Aquino in His First Year Term"

 

President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III has passed a year in his presidency. June 30 2011, the date wherein President Benigno Aquino III, son of the former President Corazon Aquino and Benigno Aquino,Jr., became the fifteenth president of the Republic of the Philippines.
Many have anticipated his first year in the position. Many have anticipated what will his future plans and projects are. One of those is his Economic Projects. During the presidential campaign, he said his plans were more jobs for Filipino workers, larger budget for poverty alleviation project, expansion of PhilHealth program, the reassessment of BIR’s tax rulings process, the Zero Based Budgeting and more. Do you think he will be able to accomplish his plans before his term end in 2016?

• In his speech, he said that his administration have done fairly well in their first year. He also added that in the coming years, he is expecting that all members of government, with the help of the Filipino people, to work together even more and hasten the realization of the change for which his administration aspires.

• In his 1st year as president, the economic model being followed by Aquino today is not different from the model followed by almost his predecessors. Instead of adopting long term solutions to the problems in economy, the Aquino government has adopted foreign dependent framework.  
  
  

• During his first year, we noticed that most of his plans were not yet started.. We still count some of his plans successful like the very famous “Walang Wang-Wang”. We notice that there is no much news about his economic plans. Nowadays the “Zero Based Budgeting” is starting to boost. Zero Based Budgeting is like everything starts in zero base and every function of the organization is analyzed. Maybe this is the start of PNoy’s plan for our country. We think this is a good project because every position is analyzed and the budget for a specific need will not be wasted.
  
  
  
  
• Aquino's administration is much focus on eliminating corruption. For that most of the people argue Mr. President because they say he is not doing all his promises to the people, because it is not obvious like what we say president Noynoy focus on defeating the corruption on our country. We admire President Noynoy for being so honest and for being such a model for those future coming president to our country because he is the person who hate corruption, because corruption kills our economy. We can’t literally judge PNoy that he don’t care about our economy because he just still adjusting and it’s just his first year as president. 

• For us his administration is first solving all the problems that the last administration left that's why his progress is slow because of that hindrances from the last administration problems, because for him the development of our country depends on eliminating all the black sheep of the administration. The corrupt people are the first obligation of PNoy to eliminate them, so that he will be easy for him to raise the country from poverty, and his program will be accomplished. Our country is slowly rising because of his hard work.

We can’t say much because one year is too short to judge our president. He still has 5 more years to improve our economy and our country.

IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMICS IN BUSINESS EDUCATION

Why most colleges and universities require students to complete at least one course in economics?  Because economics touches most areas of life, making it an important as a subject matter to study.

First, let us discuss what economics is. Economics is the study how individuals and societies choose to use scarce resources that nature and previous generation have provided. It is also said that economics is the study of human behavior. Economics is about how an individual make a choice with limited resources to satisfy its needs.

Why do we need to study economics? There are four reasons to study economics: 

1. to learn a way of thinking
2. to understand society
3. to understand global affairs
4. to be an informed citizen.

How do the four related? To learn a way of thinking, one must learn the three fundamental concepts which are Opportunity Cost, Marginalism and Efficient Market. One must learn the concept of making the good choice to be able to understand the society. The past economic status affects the current status of our economy and influence the future status. By learning the stability of our own society, we are now ready to understand global affairs which include international events and economic consequences. By understanding the first three concepts, we can now attain the level of an informed citizen.

How is it related to BUSINESS education?

Economics and Business is like a pair of lovebirds. If one of them dies, the other one will eventually die, too. It’s like if there is no economy, how will the business operate or in the other hand, what is the sense of economy if there is no business. How will the business operate if we don’t know the demand and the needs of the public?

Economics plays a very important role in Business Education. We can’t make a reasonable decision to ensure the stability and the continuous operation of our business in the future. By studying economics, we will learn to make economic decisions to influence the investors and creditors of a business. On the other hand, the main purpose of business education, such as accounting, is to provide information that is intended to be useful in making economic decisions. So, I can say that business depends on economy and economy depends on business. The business needs the economy to know what the necessities of the users are. Also to know what are the products demanded by the public and how many supplies of these products to produce. If there is no business, then there will be no economics. Since economics is the study of making decisions with limited resources, how will you make decisions if you don’t have any resources? It’s like solving a puzzle without the puzzle pieces. We won’t be able to know if the supply produce is enough to satisfy the demand of the public and we won’t be able to tell what the needs of the users are.

These two are both important and cannot be parted from each other.

IMPORTANCE:

• ·         It prepares you to be a more knowledgeable and informed participant in the modern economy.
• ·         It gives our students the building blocks for a successful financial future. It empowers consumers by giving them the knowledge and tools to improve their economic well being. It is the best investment we can make.
• ·     It teaches students the value of money. Economics help us in making decisions relevant in our daily life as a student.
• ·         It can make you a smarter consumer, worker and investor.
• ·         It helps in framing a business, policy and making effective decision related in business education.
• ·         It also solves operational and management problem.
• ·         Its helps in improving the efficiency of workers through different incentives such as increasing wage rates, improving working conditions and providing other facilities.
• ·         It helps us to improve our way of thinking especially the students taking up a business course about making real and personal decisions that they can apply in their future work.
• ·         Helps young people understand the workings of the economy and the financial system in which they are just beginning to participate.
• ·         By the study of economics businessmen learn the procedures and practices followed in trade and commerce. They get information about banking, monetary policy of government which helps them to organize and adjust their business activities and increase the margin of profit and improve the quality of his goods and services.
• ·         It enables us to understand the working process of the economic system and analyzing its issues. Its study guides them to make such economic policies through which distribution of national wealth can be distributed equally among all the members of the society.
• ·         It helps us in determining the economic standard of the country which will help you on deciding if you will risk on putting up a business.
• ·         Even if you are just a consumer it is necessary to know about economics because you will know if your money is worth it in buying those products.
• ·         It is also applicable for those who are just starting to build up their own business if their future business will be marketable on the industry.
• ·         To know how to formulate an understanding of the effects of financial actions.
• ·         To help our society to decide on how to use our limited resources.
• ·         To be aware and understand of the things that is happening in our society.
• ·         Help us in making decisions relevant in our daily life.
• ·         It allows us to be an informed citizen, so that we can determine if the policy of the government is good or bad.
• ·         It helps students/people develop the skills to meet their financial and personal objectives, including savings, financial stability, home ownership, higher education, or retirement.
• ·         It gives people the tools to understand economic and financial issues and to interpret events that will affect their financial futures.
• ·         Informed, well-educated consumers make better decisions, increasing their economic security and well being. These consumers are better able to contribute to vital, thriving communities, further fostering economic development. Improved economic education will result in more productive, fulfilling lives for individuals and families — and, in turn, more vibrant, economically stable neighborhoods and communities.
• ·         Most important, economic education is critical to building bridges between educators, businesses, and consumers. These bridges will prepare our society to meet the challenges of an increasingly knowledge-based economy. As we work to increase familiarity with new technological and financial tools, we give people the resources necessary to secure individual economic success.

Basically on our point of view, the importance of economic on business education is, it will serve as your guiding way or simply this will help you on your DECISION MAKING.