JUDGING from their reactions, both sides of the political divide listened and reacted to the President’s last Sona from preconceived political biases.
The opposition, both from left and right of the political spectrum, thumbed it all down while administration supporters ate it all up.
Politics aside, however, the one thing glaringly missing from that last Sona was a report on the progress of the country’s war on poverty.
Okay, it was never promised so there cannot be a report on whether it was accomplished or not. But that’s just it. The one thing that matters in this country, the eradication of poverty, has never been promised or, if somehow even hinted at, has never been pursued as core strategy for national development by past and present Presidents.
That is at the heart of the problem of our current political system where only factions of one party of the oligarchy take turns running this country. Whichever faction is in power will not be spared the destructive criticism from other factions because diminution or total wipe-out of the incumbent’s performance in office is a must strategy for winning the next elections. In case you haven’t noticed, Manny Pacquiao just realized that.
But no faction will ever criticize an incumbent for failing to wage a war on poverty because they know they themselves will never promise it. Again, the reason is they are running for high office not to bring the greatest good to the bigger number, in short to fight poverty, but to control the country’s political and economic systems so these continue to work in their favor.
Which makes me wonder. If a war on poverty is out of the question, how will the next President perform in issues that he/she criticized the previous administration of so destructively? Like how will he/she wage war against illegal drugs if he/she does at all? How will he/she reform a police force that has always been corrupt and inept from the start? How will the next President fight graft and corruption?
Unfortunately, it really doesn’t matter what the next President’s priorities are and how he/she will pursue them. No matter how good his/her priorities are and how ably he/she deals with them, the opposition will always find something with which to discredit his/her administration for the very simple but expedient political reason that it must be done if other factions are to have a chance at winning in the next elections.
Like a circus blowing into town, our elections feature clowns in distinctive costumes clowning for people’s votes. When it is over and the dust of all the clowning has settled, the people, as in previous circuses, meekly go back to their miserable lives none the wiser for being played for fools one more time.