Duterte 2020 Response

(A critique on President Duterte’s State of the Nation Address, August 02, 2020)
By: Bianca Adrienne M. Tan
November 30, 2020

Intorudciton
On August 02 of this year, current president Rodrigo R. Duterte released to press his State of the
Nation Address (SONA) in response to COVID-19-related specifics presented by Department of Health
(DOH) secretary Francisco Duque, conveying his (President Duterte) thoughts in adherence to our current
standing against the said pandemic. This critique details a reaction to President Duterte's SONA. In all
generalization, said SONA – for the most part – deviated from the matter, adding only quite some
relevant ideas conjured by the president which is impartially the reason to his insufficient addressing of
the matter of COVID-19.
Body
a. Summary of SONA
To begin with, Secretary Duque presented to the president and their present cohorts all the statistics
that summarize the Philippines' current status on battling COVID-19; from the toll of victims affected by
said pandemic, to the death toll, and even the number of repatriates. Following that, the secretary too
pointed out a number of requests made by the general public of frontline workers – in specific the
healthcare workers – and the request for a Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) for
selected areas. Initially, President Duterte clarifies and insufficiently responds to Secretary Duque’s
presented information. There the president immediately proceeds to discussing his view on “graft and
corruption” which he believes to be the cause of marginally every socioeconomic missteps that hinder the
Philippines’ progress against the pandemic. There, President Duterte continues into building upon his
statements regarding his aforementioned concern, while transitioning into small interjections concerning
the actual matter. The president then elaborates, for a set of some moments, on the pressing matter of the
pandemic – all the while adding his personal comments towards his own irritations.
b. Critical Evaluation
As introduced in the above summary, President Duterte initializes his statements with insufficient
responses to the information presented by Secretary Duque, ultimately deviating into his own comments
about graft and corruption in the country. Instead of responding to the terms of COVID-19, the president
responds on how he wants the former (graft and corruption) to be stopped and for involved parties to be
prosecuted by city mayors and local governments. Additionally, President Duterte also issues a statement
on a controversy revolving around the New People’s Army (NPA) at which they demand to receive
formative vaccinations should the Philippines acquire them in time. In response to the NPA, the president
argues that the soldiers of the country should receive the first shots of the vaccine – at the same time
interjecting comments about how he [the president] wants the citizens of this country to remain healthy.
Here it is understood that the president bears a point regarding the need to remain healthy amidst
the current state of the pandemic, especially in the Philippines. However, what is more
detrimental, the SONA revolves around unnecessary matters, which evensong may have little
 connections to the primal concern, can be omitted without harming the supposed point of the
SONA. This address was meant solely to discuss COVID-19-related matters, hence Secretary
Duque presented just that, yet President Duterte provided unnecessary details that do not concern
– in itself – the pandemic.
After that, the SONA continues to deviate from the main concern for COVID-19 as the president
expresses his intention; to have municipal governments pass an ordinance in accordance to his concern
about prosecuting parties involved in the rise of graft and corruption in the country. Consequently,
Duterte states that failure to pass said ordinance will lead to him having the order passed immediately.
The SONA’s deviation from the matter of the pandemic continues as President Duterte starts to criticize
barangay officials of having what he believes as a god-complex. He quotes: “I’m sure you know nothing
or little at all about governance”.
Harkening back to the thesis statement of this critique, the SONA deviates from the concern of
COVID-19 for a significant portion. At this point in the SONA of President Duterte it can be
overtly noticed that he has completely shifted from addressing the pandemic to expressing his
own concerns. When initially speaking of graft and corruption he begins to claim incompetence
over some government-connected workers and impose labels which all can support how this
SONA departs from tackling its supposed theme which is the pandemic as formalized by
Secretary Duque.
Thereafter, President Duterte finally returns to addressing the state of COVID-19, acknowledging the
concerns and requests made by healthcare workers as presented by Secretary Duque. However, he
momentarily switches back to tackling the graft and corruption issue he raised earlier in his SONA, there
contradicting his acknowledgement of the healthcare workers' requests for allowances by explaining how
said request cannot be met due to the lack of funding the government has in accordance to expenditure
made over the first few months of the quarantine.
At this point of the SONA, the president persistently provides his unnecessary interjection of
irrelevant information. However, more now than earlier, he remains on the concern for the
healthcare workers in their conditions. Problem here is, from initially assuring that the
government “will do whatever it can to meet the healthcare workers’ requests”, President Duterte
suddenly goes to saying that such requests cannot be met. This thus contributes to the lack of
sufficient response to the matter which was pointed out in the introduction of this critique.
Duterte continues his SONA by expressing his irritation on how some healthcare workers express
their own, somewhat of, surrender as a result of the psychological distress brought up by one of the
present representatives in the conference. President Duterte goes on to express about whom the public
will rely on in dire need for medical attention should such psychological distress overcome the workers.
Duterte expounds by expressing his feelings of how current doctors and nurses today are the ones who
were trained for this very situation. Then he proceeds to stating how the best way to help these healthcare
workers is to remain at home especially when there is nothing important to accomplish away from home –
there r fucking the public crowds and helping prevent the spread of the virus.
Most now than his previous statements, President Duterte conveys a response to the conditions of
the pandemic, on part mainly of the lives of the healthcare workers. Although addressing such
aspect negatively as in the SONA such part is delivered in a manner showing offense in specific
regard to his word choice and diction when addressing the majority of healthcare workers. These
portions contributing to the “quite some relevant ideas” portion of the thesis of this critique.
 Towards the end of this SONA, President Duterte starts to overwhelm his statements with responses
that can be connected back to the main concern of the pandemic, but at this point jumping between details
that are not cohesive with one another. Although he closes his SONA by again getting back to his point of
people remaining in their homes if they do not have important matters to pursue away from their houses –
there helping prevent the spread of the virus.
Concluding his SONA, president Duterte leaves off with a note of encouragement for the citizens
of the country to maintain health protocols. Yet, up to this point, he has not delivered sufficient
details in response to the information explained by S cretary Duque, with the exception of
granting authorization for MECQ in selected areas that the secretary has mentioned.
Conclusion
To sum it all up, as provided in the introduction of this critique, the SONA provided some points, only
problem is that majority of the statements and comments made by the president deviate from the matter of
the pandemic the Philippines is a part of. The evaluation of this critique supports that regardless the points
made in response to the COVID-19 specifics, the SONA conveyed mostly irrelevant descriptions that
highlighted mostly the president’s own feelings towards matters that don’t all concern the pandemic at
hand.