Michael Helmut O.

Kessler
122089

POS 100 - V

August 22, 2015

SONA Reaction Paper

Complaining is not a strategy (Bezos). President Benigno Noynoy Aquino delivered his
sixth and last state of the station address (SONA) last July 27. The supposed purpose of the
SONA is to inform the nation of its present economic, political, and social condition. Despite our
Presidents lengthy speech, the informing part was kept to a minimum in exchange for
unnecessary finger pointing and a cheap appeal to the nations emotions. Instead of being
provided with a crucial overview of our countrys current standing, we are given lame
justifications which should excuse and even make us feel appreciative of our governments
shortcomings.
I appreciate the Presidents efforts of trying to put everything into context by comparing the
countrys accomplishments under his administration with those of previous administrations but I
think that we are way beyond this stage already. All the exaggeration of how much better we are
than before felt rather unnecessary. This is our Presidents last SONA, had he said all of those
things in his previous SONAs (which he did), maybe I would have felt different but this time his
over comparing just felt forced and out of place. Instead of playing the blame game, showing
solid results and future strategies for the remaining year would have been much better. Dwelling
in the past has done nothing good for anyone yet.
A huge part of the Presidents speech was about the corruption and incompetence of the previous
administration, even recalling issues such as Hello Garci scandal, ZTE-NBN deal, MWSS
bonus, Maguindanao massacre, and NFA anomalies. He boasted how much the economy has
improved in every aspect since his term had started through proper implementation and anticorruption campaigns. According to our President, Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.
What he failed to mention was that 51 percent of Filipino families still considered themselves
poor which in itself says enough about the eradication of corruption.
To be frank, I am not that well-informed about the state of our nation but despite my ignorance, I
could still recognize that a huge chunk of the whole story was missing. We were given an
arbitrary list of accomplishments which sound good to the unknowing but if inspected closer
upon, many important issues and most of the negatives were left out. Pressing issues such as the

Michael Helmut O. Kessler

122089

POS 100 - V

August 22, 2015

Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) with many politicians involved and passage of
the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill were left out entirely. Also, not a single word has been
said about the Mamasapano operation just like most of the other issues. Anything which may
seem even slightly questionable has been left out and dangling.
The President presented a lot of fancy numbers which supposedly should show us how great our
economy is doing and how much we have improved these last few years. I must admit, the
numbers look good and according to these numbers, our economy truly is flourishing. Theres a
reason were called Asias rising tiger after all. Statistically, we are doing great but what our
President yet again left out was the challenge of translating these statistics into tangible output
that can be felt by every Filipino. These numbers may seem as good indicators of development
but if nothing is felt, economic growth may still be questionable.
In my opinion, the SONA felt more as an attempt to shift the blame to others. We dont need
excuses and finger-pointing, what we need is action. Comparing bad and worse has never been a
good thing. Despite all of my negative sentiments, I still believe that there is hope and things will
be better in the years to come. I just hope our next President will not do the same thing and point
at Noynoy whenever faced with controversies and issues.