PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte addresses the nation a second time tomorrow, a year and change after assuming the presidency.
It’s that time of the year again and we expect to see things we have always seen at around this time.
The occasion would not be complete without the usual protests on the road leading to the Batasan. The President will no doubt be pilloried on the streets, rightly or wrongly, for his controversial methods in quelling the drug problem. A likely result would be traffic jams near the House of Representatives.
There will be dramatizations of issues, likely the supposed extrajudicial killings of suspects in drug cases, the gaping wealth inequality, the destruction of the environment. In previous administrations, effigies were burned and other gimmickry staged.
Lawmakers would be in their Sona best, even as Mr. Duterte last year said he would have no more of the annual fashion show that traditionally featured government officials and their spouses in designer outfits. Perhaps the best costume they would put on is their show of loyalty to their political patron, the majority or the minority.
Last year, the Duterte administration engaged a multi-awarded filmmaker to direct the State of the Nation Address, and we indeed saw experimental shots—curious angles, undue focus. We wonder whether there would be more of the same tomorrow, for the viewing pleasure, or disgust, of those watching from their television sets, computers or mobile devices.
Last year, too, we were promised a concise, moving speech from the President. “Moving” would be arguable—different people can be moved in different ways—but the speech was by all standards not concise. This is a speaking style we all got used to over the next few months.
But since this is a president who ran and won on the promise of change, we will continue to hope that tomorrow’s address will assure us all that the change is not merely in form.
No matter Mr. Duterte’s same rambling, expletive-laden manner of speaking. We have long accepted that he will never act or talk like a conventional, presidential head of state. But we would like to hear concrete plans—though not down to the last tactic—about how he intends to bring the terrorists down, now that Congress has granted his request for an extension of martial law. We would like to hear how he would address the drug menace, balancing it with adherence to the rule of law and respect for human rights.
We want to be assured that he knows what he is doing about China, and he is not just being swayed by promises of official development assistance and other investments. Finally, we want to hear that the aggressive infrastructure program is not a pipe dream, and that it would realistically provide opportunities for as many Filipino workers as possible.
We would not mind the Sona clichés, just as long as we can also bank on something new, something different, and something doable to glue us together in these most trying of times.