I went through the transcript of the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Rodrigo Duterte with a sincere desire to experience the emotional impact that it had on Communications Office Secretary Martin Andanar. He said a preview of the speech made him cry.
At the risk of seeming like a cold-hearted individual, I felt no such emotional high. No such luck. First of all, it was hardly a report on the state of the nation in its various facets – and not just the state of criminality in the country, specifically the drug menace, and the broken justice system.
In his opening words, Duterte said he had no taste for raking up the sins of his predecessors, although he did state that those found guilty of violations of law would be made answerable, albeit with due process,
The SONA was in fact a report on the State of the New Administration’ plans, programs and policies - whatever one could make of them, from a rambling disjointed speech.
This is not to belittle the honest effort of the new president to express himself in the manner that he thought best. Remember that it was that manner of expressing himself that persuaded over 16 million Filipinos to vote for him. It may be assumed that many of those millions would not recognize a coherent speech if it bit them on the nose.
But as someone interested in the wisdom and profundity of national leaders – never mind eloquence, grassroots sincerity is more inspiring – I had to find a way to piece together the thoughts of our president in his first report to the nation.
Following Duterte’s trend of thought, frankly, took some effort. The process reminded me of the old copy reading days in the Kislap-Graphic Magazine (circa 1957) where the editor’s mandatory tools, aside from the blue pencil, were a pair of scissors and scotch tape.
One had to go through each manuscript to find a paragraph that could logically follow the lead. And one had to search for and piece together sections of the manuscript to come up with a logical and coherent sequence.
That’s what I decided to do with Duterte’s SONA. You see, he kept jumping from topic to topic with no apparent concern for developing each one. What made it worse was his penchant for ad-libbing, depending on which subject took his fancy.
By focusing on a specific topic – say, the drug problem and the broken justice system – I succeeded in finding related paragraphs in various sections of the entire speech, and transposed them to where I thought they logically belonged. That way, I managed to get a more comprehensive view of Dutete’s thoughts.
For easier identification, I labeled each related topic or paragraph with a heading;
·Justice system, crime and the drug menace
· Back to drugs
· Uplift people’s welfare by fixing the justice system
· People’s welfare with reference to criminality
· Media killings
· Back to the broken justice system
· Back to drugs
· Educational development related to drug education
· Back to drug problem
Out of nearly 9000 words in the entire speech, including ad-libs, this topic accounted for 2.137 words. Of that only 24 words were devoted to educational development and that had to do with drug education..
Streamlining the civil service was the next favorite topic of Dutete, accounting for 1,250 words. DENR, Gina Lopez, global waming, garbage and Laguna Lake took up 1,116 words, beating Infrastructure development and the traffic problem which took 1,021 words. The paeans Dutete gave to Lopez accounted for the margin.
Internal security, the Bangsamoro issue, the CPP-NPA-NDF and lumads accounted for 757 words. Squatters and poverty alleviation rated 593 words. While Duterte’s other favorite topics, Federalsim, took 615 words and the Freedom of Information executive order had 472 words.
What about topics close to the heart of business and related to the economy? The economy and tax reform rated only 151 words. Jobs and entrepreneurship had 209, health care and reproductive health took all of 111 words, while agriculture and tourism development took 65 and 20 words, respectively.
Also given only passing mention were women’s rights with 85 words and natural calamities with 56.
Foreign relations and the West Philippine Sea issue accounted for 149 words. No ad libs.
That’s one word less than clean governance, which had 150 words – but included a rationale that corruption and inefficiency at the lower local government level could be beyond the national government’s control.
I think this SONA gives the country an idea of where the new president intends to focus his passion. There are issues and concerns that different sectors may think are important and require more – or at least as much – attention and diligence as those in Duterte’s comfort zone.
One would have difficulty understanding why education, health care, agricultural development and tourism development merited only passing mention. I think Duterte is intelligent enough to appreciate their importance, But prudent enough not to discuss topics beyond his full comprehension.
That’s the function of the presidential staff – or maybe they’re still warming their seats.
Perhaps he intends to delegate those issues and concerns to the heads of Cabinets or to Comgress. But while the President can delegate authority, Duterte cannot delegate responsibility and accountability.
Duterte did end on a poignant note:
“There are many among us whose emotional wounds are still fresh and painful to the touch. We cannot erase the images of death and destruction from our minds. We cannot wash away the stench of rotting flesh from our noses. And there are many of us who are still waiting for the help that was promised.
”But we should not despair. Like someone wrote: It is when the night is darkest, that dawn breaks. We are imbued with resiliency that has been tested and proven. More difficult times As in the past. We have a bond to act together. We have to help each other. For then and only then can we truly prevail.
“And the Filipino, disciplined, informed, involved, shall rise from the rubbles of sorrow and pain. So that all the mirrors in the world will reflect the face of a passion that has changed this land.
“Daghang Salamat.”
Let us all hope fpr the best.
([email protected]).
