SONA 2016

Might as well write about President Duterte's first State of the Nation speech. What else is there to talk about.

The whole SONA thing has been whittled down to a pointless exercise despite the clear significance of the President himself appearing before the people's representatives. In the past, the SONA just became a glorified showbiz party where the President preaches to the choir and toots his own horn about what a swell job he's doing and how great everything is. My expectations were low, especially considering we're barely into the President's first year in office.

As it turns out, the speech was alright. It set the agenda at least. It was a rambling speech but no surprise there since Duterte prefers speaking off the cuff. So let's go down the several things we can take away from this speech, shall we?

1. Forward, not backward

Immediately, the speech hit the right notes with me. As the handful of people who read this blog know, I've written about how the Philippines suffers from the baggage of its past, specifically, the People Power movement. This was most pronounced during the reign of Pnoy when everything he thought and did was framed in the yellow mentality. The self-righteousness was overwhelming and it led to a lot of vindictiveness and an "the pure us versus the evil them" mentality.

So we're moving forward now to new things. No more of the blame game Pnoy was so fond of. That's good. Finally. Let's move on.

2. Law and order

Well, it is his winning issue. Not a lot of people would disagree when you say that the justice system in the Philippines has gone down the toilet. However, Duterte seems to talk about justice in broad terms. He only ever goes into specifics when it's about drug crimes, speaking of which...

3. The purging will continue

If you had a problem with the extrajudicial killings of suspected drug criminals, perhaps it's time to just get used to it. El Jefe made it clear that the police and military have the backing of the office of the Presidency. He said he was going to fix our crime problem in six months. Expect the killings to continue until some measure of improvement is made somewhere.

It begs the question though; what if six months isn't enough? Whait if the killings have to go on for the whole six years Duterte is in office? Can such an effort be sustained? Is there a chance this will spiral out of control? Does anyone really care? On the last bit, probably not. We'll just have to pretend the government is really killing the bad guys and nothing underhanded is going on. No problem, I've had to live my life with even bigger delusions than that.

4. Double speak and sweet nothings

I'm convinced that Duterte is some kind of grand-master politician since nobody seemed to have picked up on these. Despite insulting the Pope and calling the Catholic Church the most hypocritical institution in the Philippines, he said that while he believes in separation of church and state, there should be no separation between God and state. That's pleasing to hear for both religious and non-religious. It means nothing but it made a good sound bite.

 Human rights must uplift human dignity but mustn't be used to destroy the country, he says. So it's good except when it's bad. There's a subtle hint that he won't let the bleeding-hearts get in his way but we know that already. Ultimately pointless.

The Philippines will address global warming but will not compromise development. Again, a crowd-pleaser for both sides of the aisle.

As for the international scene, we remain committed to dialogue and cooperation even to those who won't enter dialogue or cooperate. That's the default. We're weak We're literally incapable of any other position. If only the tough guy act worked outside the Philippines, huh? For now, we remain China's victim.

5. The only dangerous bit

Duterte wants peace talks with the Communists and Muslim separatists. In a perfect world, the Philippines would have wiped these scumbags out already. They have no legitimacy in my eyes since they are, you know, threats to our sovereignty? They're rebels? Lest we forget, these guys are no good and are hardly trustworthy with their occasional acts of barbarity.

Anyway, it's not a perfect world and the Philippines has been unable to defeat them for decades so it might as well try a new (old) tack of peace talks (again). I realize that I live in the city and not in some podunk, backwater barrio where the threat of the NPA or MILF suddenly deciding to swing by and slit your throat, is a remote possibility. I guess there's nothing to do but hope that El Jefe knows what he's doing. Forget the drug war, this thing here is actually the most dangerous play Duterte will have a part in as a bad deal would tie into another thing which he's pushing, which is...

6. Federalism at last?

He wants it done. It remains to be seen since this is all on Congress, not the President. Can Congress actually get off their good-for-nothing asses and get it done? Are they competent enough to make the right amendments and changes to the constitution without any backdoors or hidden benefits for vested interests? What standards does Duterte want so he won't veto it? 

It all remains to be seen but wow, it's surreal to hear people actually talking about it. Here I thought that serious reforms to our nearly three decade old constitution wasn't possible. I sincerely doubt that whatever Congress comes up with will be the very best possible product. Gone is the idea of Congress as an august body of the very best the Philippines has to offer. There will be a lot of hand-wringing and cries of "what about MY interests?" but maybe this President can whip them into shape.

7. Candy shower

Then we have the assorted bromides about the wonderful things the government has in store for the next few years. It's like the candy politicians throw at the proles during rallies. It's sweet but not filling and we've heard them all before.

I can't write a separate section for how Duterte will cut red tape, fix traffic, give free wi-fi and all that. Just put it under a tab labelled "promises" and be done with it. The only difference today is that we have a guy who just might actually mean what he says and that's what gets the people so excited. Personally, I think it's just red meat but if Duterte can accomplish at least half of these minor promises, people will probably be fine with that.

Summary

Duterte promises not just a strong government but an effective one; a government that can actually get things done. After years in the mire of the Pnoy brand do-nothing Presidency, this is like rain in the desert.

However, talk is cheap and politicians are rich men. As always, we shall see.

At least it won't be a boring Presidency this time.