SONA or Later - Duterte's Roadmap or Highway to Hell?

     Yes, I watched Duterte's speech for two grueling hours last Monday.  And I was not disappointed to see and hear our president to once again ad lib, punctuate his points with expletives, launch personal attacks against whom he perceived to be enemies of the State, as well as advertise philandering.

     He was able to stick to his written speech for the first 25 minutes or so, reading from the teleprompter. Then, as expected, he started going off-script. Duterte is obviously more at ease and more effective when he does impromptu. And, without failure, he displayed this charisma during his second state of the nation address, going rouge in selling his views (popular and unpopular) to his audience at Batasan Pambansa and TV sets across the country. He stood there in the rostrum like an angry rooster as he spewed his usual rhetoric about the war on drugs, how he would "hound to hell" those who would harm the nation's youth, etcetera. He also made disparaging comments against the US and the white race and resumed mimicking and mocking Obama (who is black BTW).

     And not surprising (but still was able to raise my hackles) was the fact that most of those in the plenary were laughing and clapping with our bad-mouthed president.  I noticed though, as Brillante Mendoza's panned through the gallery, that members of the diplomatic corps were sober and solemn. And of course, the opposition senators were not laughing most especially Risa Hontiveros. Vice-President Leni Robredo, when the camera angled towards her, likewise displayed a serious demeanor. 

(Photo credit:https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8j5PtBsXJ8w/maxresdefault.jpg)

      Duterte, in my opinion, failed to present a roadmap for our country to take until the next time he addresses the nation next year. His big announcement was probably the 2018 budget, the tax reform bill, and his threat against mining companies. He also failed to mention the accomplishments or the "changes" he had promised during his first SONA, except for Mighty Corp's Php25-B tax settlement.  What he did was used that rostrum and his privilege speech to attack his critics - from the media to Jose Maria Sison. What he did was appealed to the emotions of the Filipinos, trying to awaken our sense of pride and patriotism. He mentioned the Balangiga Bells, the three church bells which the US army have taken as war loot in the battle of Balangiga in Eastern Samar way back in 1901. 

     "Give us back those Balangiga bells," Duterte said. "They are ours. They belong to the Philippines. They are part of our national heritage." 

     I was hoping that those words should be directed to China.  "Give us back those islands," he should have said. I don't want to undermine the importance of those bells to our history and our fight for independence; however, the present is more important to me than the past. If Duterte has wanted to gain respect and admiration of the world and be considered as a strong leader,  he should have made a firmer stance on the West Philippine Sea issue, not just mentioned it in passing in his SONA. His stance on WPS would have created a more resounding noise, much louder than those three bells clanging together.

     Those islands are ours. They belong to the Philippines. They are part of our national heritage. They are not mere inanimate symbols. Ang mga isla ay sumasagisag ng ating kasarinlan, karapatan at kayamanan. I am hoping Duterte, the ever charismatic and populist demagogue, would have this epiphany sooner than later.