THE sky was overcast as rain poured on the afternoon of the President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (Sona). That did not deter 40,000 protesters marching in Manila. They are perhaps buoyed by the effigies of fishing boats, and the spirit of the Aeta-Dumagat fighting the Kaliwa Dam, the family members of the slain Negros 14 farmers, the Mindanao lumad fighting against the closure of schools.
That rain delayed Sona for an hour. When the President arrived in Congress, the mood was set with an indigenous cloth draping the podium and music played by the Philharmonic Orchestra, a first time in Congress.
They played a Visayan song titled Usahay which has these lyrics: “Usahay magamahay ako/ Nganong nabuhi pa ning kalibutan/ Nganong gitiaw-tiawan/ Ang gugma ko kanimo, kanimo da”.
That song about regrets of not taking one’s love seriously, seem to seep through the SONA. The SONA was swinging between praise and frustration.
The President said he is pleased with high ratings and his party’s landslide victory, but he jabs at cabinet members for saying there’s no money for projects, or at military officials for messing things up.
He hits bureaucracy. “We in government talk too much, act too little and too slow.” Then his gung-ho warning: “Pag ‘di niyo pa magawa yan, papatayin ko talaga kayo.”
He runs through his economic programs about 20 minutes into his speech. He urges the passing of the tax reform packages like the Trabaho Bill. He promised salary increases to public school teachers and nurses, but said it is only a little that will tide through the times.
This is disconnected to the reality that despite his high approval, figures in unemployment, hunger, prices of goods remain high.
He lectured about handling the West Philippine Sea, but said things that were already said. A survey showed 60% favored a strong position in defending the seas against China’s incursion. No one talked about war.
The only agenda on Mindanao was the urging of the Bangsamoro Transition to get things done fast. There’s nothing about the 65,000 homeless in Marawi, or the Lumad displaced by Martial Law.
In this SONA, the President had no enemies to bash. Fighting the communists was good for one sentence.
Perhaps he realizes the enemy when he said: “I have identified the enemy who dragged us into this quagmire. And sadly the enemy is us. We are our own tormentors.” DDS and trolls, please take note.
But he can only joke that he wishes the roof in Congress will fall on them all if the one big earthquake comes, then there will be a new day.
Perhaps that song said it all. “Di tiaw-tiawan”.