- Despite delivery lapses, Duterte SONA was applauded
- SONA pushes federalism, war against drugs, criminality & corruption
- Duterte seeks laws and directives to address common man’s needs
NOTHING significantly new — in terms of policies and plans, as well as what may have been a fresh peek into the persona of the man who will lead the nation for the next six years — was unraveled in the State of the Nation Address (SONA) President Rodrigo Duterte had labored to deliver in all of 100 minutes last Monday in the joint session of Congress at the Batasan.
By now, 30 days after his ascension to the presidency, the nation has grown familiar with an unorthodox, straight-talking president, and the SONA further reinforced the public’s growing feeling that, for better or worse, it has to chart turbulous waters with a firebrand at the helm.
President Duterte’s SONA was not exactly a virtuoso performance, especially compared with that of teleprompter-savvy Noynoy Aquino, but the Duterte speech was several times halted by thunderous applause; no different from the spontaneous public approbation he got from the throngs which had lapped up his every pronouncement, cheap jokes, street language, cuss words and all, during the campaign.
A polished, stylish speaker, Duterte is not. At times apparently uneasy in mouthing English phrases crafted by his Malacanang writers; often he would set his prepared speech aside and talk off-the-cuff in a funny combination of Pilipino and Visayan sentences. Duterte knew how to make people laugh, connect with the audience, speak in the language of the people. Strangely, it was and still is a major part of his personal allure — an uncanny image of sincerity and will; a street bully who happens to be the President of the Philippines.
Political analysts have faulted Duterte’s message for alleged lack of direction and coherence, “unable to unify the nation” as expected from a SONA. There were instances when straight declarations of plans and policies got lost in sudden recitations of anecdotes the President is fond of. Clearly, the President was more comfortable in easy, familiar banter; resorting to it several times before turning back to the SONA script.
Still, others allow the President enough time to grow on the job. “What is important is he knew the pulse of the nation and stakes his life to abide by it,” one Congress leader said.
Through it all, what President Duterte’s SONA managed to convey was the Presidential resolve to get rid of the festering ills that have rooted the country into stagnation — criminality, yes, drugs and corruption.
Post a Comment