3rd SONA Presidential, but Not Memorable

A panel of analysts expressed mixed views on the President’s third State of the Nation Address (SONA) during The Manila Times Roundtable broadcast online on Monday, but lauded it for its consistency and focus on policy.

The President’s speech seems to have been written to “refute, reassure, reiterate and establish,” said Amado Valdez, former dean of the University of the East (UE) College of Law.

His statements, moreover, had no inconsistencies and went straight to the point. “He was able to do that in his speech. I think it’s one of the best [speeches] so far,” said Yulo.

The panel noted that the President did not allow the leadership tussle between House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to overshadow the SONA, by not mentioning it at all.

Valdez said Duterte was able to refute accusations of human rights violations by saying that while the critics’ concern was human rights, his was “human lives.” Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine Islands President Jose Luis Yulo Jr. said the President “acted presidential” and noted that there were no inappropriate words in his speech.

“Tomorrow’s headline should really focus on the content of the SONA, then on the side we could have the Alvarez-Arroyo sidebar,” said Publisher-Editor Nerilyn Tenorio.

Duterte’s clarification of his foreign policy was also one of the highlights of his third SONA, Tenorio said. “The well-being of the overseas Filipino workers is the foreign policy concern. That’s the fundamental basis of our foreign policy, as far as our people are concerned,” she added.

There were no memorable lines during Duterte’s third SONA, however, said columnist Yen Makabenta. “There were no lines in the speech that were particularly memorable, the only one I found memorable was this thing about human rights and human lives,” Makabenta said.

Makabenta said Duterte’s statement was effective in addressing human rights advocates and that it was an excellent articulation of his point. But the speech lacked persuasiveness. “[Duterte] was not soliciting applauses. Overall I would say [the speech] lacked eloquence, it could have been in some places had he chosen to, but the attention was not on style actually, the attention was on, I think, getting the message across — the policies,” he said.

Federalism

In the pre-SONA broadcast, Yulo said the shift of federalism was unnecessary as “We are already unified…We will dismantle if we do this.” Federalism was successful in uniting the United States and Germany, but they were divided states, he said. Makebenta also said subdividing the country would make no sense as it is already unified.

Valdez said there might be a “psychological boost” to local government units in the different parts of the Philippines that would turn into federal regions.