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MONUMENTAL FAILURE:
A Reaction with Reflection to President Duterte’s State of the Nation Addresses
Sem. Gred Matthew L. Viñalon
gred_vinalon@osjcs.org

A quinquennium has been almost yesterday. A new president was elected, new highways and bridges

were established, a new type of government was proposed, and a graver penalty was being pushed through. But

from those, we cursed and later embraced the new normal after the virus first entered in our premises. These

kinds of events are the ones which we either commemorate or try to change as they may have developed or

wrecked their lifespans. With that, people tend to create or do something for those kinds of events to endure and

to be passed on the following generations. The ancient people simply began from cave drawings, sculpting

figurines, and by continuous developments monuments were made.

According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, monuments were “lasting evidences, reminders, or example

of someone or something notable or great; it can be a distinguished person; or a memorial stone or a building

erected in remembrance of a person or event”. 1 Commonly speaking, monuments are like those of the statues of

Abraham Lincoln in Washington D.C., Jose Rizal in the Rizal Park, the Dambana ng Kagitingan in Bataan,

Magellan’s Cross in Cebu, and whatnot. Widely speaking, monuments are not limited to statues, it can be a

person. A person who is distinguished in a place like heroes, leaders, and most especially presidents. But,

thinking of the essence of monuments, i.e., to commemorate, does not confine it to statues and people, because

a person can commemorate also through speech which will be the focus of this paper.

In the Philippines, presidents commemorate their accomplishments through the State of the Nation

Address (SONA). “The SONA is delivered by the President of the Philippines every year”, it “reports on the

state of the country, unveils the government’s agenda for the coming year, and may also propose to Congress

certain legislative measures”.2 Thus, it is the time for commemoration of their leadership and a remarkable

event for the Filipinos, ergo metaphorically speaking a monument.

1
“Monument,” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monument (accessed
September 16, 2021).
2
See GOVPH, “The State of the Nation Address: Traditions and History,” Official Gazette,
https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/the-state-of-the-nation-address-traditions-and-history/, (accessed September 16, 2021).
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Every Filipino has their varying point-of-views with regard to every SONA.3 Simply because every

people have different experiences in relation to what they have heard from it. As such, there are people who still

advertise President Duterte to run for Vice Presidency. Perhaps, they had an experience of President’s goodness,

some even became a Diehard Duterte Supporter (DDS). But from those, I do not vouch for the present

administration because of what I see in the physical and virtual environment. But, to better dwell on these, I will

try to enter to both of their lenses in looking at the monumental event of this country’s monument, President

Rodrigo Duterte’s SONA.

President Rodrigo Duterte is the best President we ever had. His name rang to the ears of the

Filipinos with his extraordinary and appealing promises with regard to Death Penalty for addicts, Federalism,

War on drugs, Build-Build-Build program, Terrorism, end of traffic, ending contractualization, going to the

Spratlys himself, and the like.4 But, these promises were not just promises. From his SONA recently and from

the previous year, many from the said promises were fulfilled. He started the process of “reviving Death penalty

by lethal injection for crimes specified under the Comprehensive Dangerous [Drug] Act of 2002”. 5 He also

managed to let our economy grow, “our economy, with investor confidence, was poised to leapfrog into the

company of the world's fastest-growing economies until [the] COVID-19 pandemic stole everything." 6 Also, for

our safety we came to have “NTF-ELCAC”, “with the creation of the National Task Force to End Local

Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), we have made great strides in addressing the root causes of this

conflict”.7 Then, as he also promised, drug pushers, users, and manufacturers were imprisoned, he said, “our

unyielding campaign led to the surrender of millions of drug dependents and neutralization, capture, and

prosecution of thousands of drug personalities." 8 Furthermore, he managed to lessen congestion and help

3
“Point-of-view”, is understood as “medium quo”, it is something of which one is not conscious but by
which one knows something else; See Vincent Potter, On Understanding Understanding: A Philosophy of Knowledge (New York:
Fordham University Press, 1994), p.153.
4
Cf. Pia Ranada, “Two years of Duterte: Broken and fulfilled promises,” Rappler, June 27, 2018,
https://www.rappler.com/nation/duterte-two-years-as-president-broken-fulfilled-promises, (accessed September 19, 2021).
5
See Presidential Communications Operations Office Presidential News Desk, “5th State of the Nation Address of Rodrigo
Roa Duterte, President of the Philippines to the Congress of the Philippines,” (July 27, 2020).
6
See Presidential Communications Operations Office Presidential News Desk, “6 th State of the Nation Address of Rodrigo
Roa Duterte, President of the Philippines to the Congress of the Philippines,” (July 26, 2021).
7
See Ibid.
8
See Ibid.
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commuting citizens by developing a part of the Metro Rail Transit, widely known as the MRT, he said, “today,

we can see the tangible results. MRT3...was a horror for the daily commuters to endure in the past … we have

taken away the misery of public commuting."9 Finally, he came to have infra projects in provinces, he said,

“beyond Metro Manila, we are pursuing several high-impact projects …we have brought equitable

development” not just in the capital of the Philipines.10

From all these, President Duterte is the best as he managed to fulfill many of his promises. In fact, I

haven’t enumerated everything as there are also achievements that were not promised yet happened. But from

these, why there are people who hate him?

President Rodrigo Duterte is not the best President we ever had. From the number of his fulfilled

promises there are also unfulfilled promises and disappointing events which was overlooked in his SONA. First

is about Distance Learning, he said that “uninterrupted and quality” 11 education was given to the students

online, but in reality, it is ineffective as students cannot comply with the demands in technology and fees. Then

with regard to the West Philippine Sea, recently he clearly admitted that to be the person who will ride the Jet

ski to Scarborough was a mere “bravado” because of campaign, then he referred to his believers as “stupid”. 12

This is our situation, he is as if letting China to claim what is not theirs despite the UN arbitral ruling in 2016,

“Putang inang papel yan, itatatpon ko yan sa Waste Basket”, but what he said on his SONA in 2020, “we

worked without fail” regarding with that issue, indeed what he often said contradicts to what really is

happening.13 Then, he had attacks to Press Freedom, as such he did not allow the NTC to grant ABS-CBN

franchise be renewed even though it is already proven that they paid their debts already,14 perhaps what he had

is personal vendetta as his campaign material discontinued to air in this network. In addition to that, outside his

SONA he Red Tagged, Makabayan, Bayan muna, and Gabriella as members in a grand conspiracy which is

9
See Ibid.
10
See Ibid.
11
See Presidential Communications Operations Office Presidential News Desk, “5th State of the Nation Address…” op. cit.
12
See Daphne Galvez, “Duterte: Jet ski promise just a campaign joke, stupid,” Inquirer.net, May 10, 2021,
//newsinfo.inquirer.net/1430015/duterte-admits-jet-ski-promise-in-2016-a-pure-campaign-joke-kung-naniwala-kayo-i-would-say-you-
are-really-stupid, (accessed September 21, 2021).
13
See Presidential Communications Operations Office Presidential News Desk, “5th State of the Nation Address…” op. cit.
14
See Daphne Galvez, “ABS-CBN has no tax delinquency; ‘regularly’ paying taxes – BIR exec,” Inquirer.net, July 1, 2020,
https://business.inquirer.net/301458/abs-cbn-has-no-tax-delinquency-regularly-paying-taxes-bir-exec, (accessed September 21, 2021).
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said to be headed by “Communist Party in the Philippines”, to hinder their freedom to express themselves being

against the administration.15 Another thing that made people hate him is his incompetent response to the

Pandemic, during his SONA, he merely praised the sectors and frontliners who sacrificed themselves in this

period, but no better plan was introduced other than to initiate lockdown, wear face shield, locate the infected,

and beg for vaccines. Lastly, regarding War on Drugs. This has always been a pressing issue as non-drug

addicts became victims, this will be investigated by the International Criminal Court. For me, death penalty is

not the solution, because graveness does not solve the problem with drugs, it is the implementation of the law

that shapes the society. But this is allegedly said to be a ‘success[ful]’ fight against drugs, but as I have said, it

is not really a success because plenty of innocent Filipino families were broken, they are always said to be

“nanlaban”.

From all these, indeed a “pen is mightier than a sword”. The SONAs were confluence of informing the

Filipino citizens while corrupting them. As such, he used it to sugar coat the weaknesses of his administration

by boasting his achievements. This led the people to focus their attention to his good fragrance. Then, with

regard to the accusations that arise from those who come across with his gross smell, he would reply by

attacking them instead of solving his problem.16 Also, with regard to his frank statements, whenever these

statements became an issue, it will just be overturned to be misinterpreted by the Filipinos as Presidential

Spokesperson Harry Roque would always give further interpretations to it during press conferences.

But it is good that there are some Filipinos who chose to look at the administrations’ actions rather than

to listen merely to the SONAs, “action speaks louder than voice”. Widely speaking, the president is the head

of the Filipinos. Thus, being the head made the body almost dependent to it. As such, if a president is an

economist, the country’s economy will surely rise, then if the president is corrupt, the body will suffer as they

might be influenced by a similar mindset and the goods which is supposed to be for all will be prioritized to

15
See Nestor Corales, “Red-tagging a cover-up for ‘incompetence’ – Makabayan,” Inquirer.net, December 2, 2020,
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1367050/makabayan-red-tagging-cover-up-for-incompetence, (accessed September 21, 2020).
16
“Ad hominem”, this fallacy occurs when, instead of addressing someone's argument or position, you irrelevantly attack the
person or some aspect of the person who is making the argument.; Cf. Hans Hansen, "Fallacies", The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy (Summer 2020 Edition), ed. Edward N. Zalta, https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/fallacies/, no. 1.13,
accessed September 21, 2020.
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higher members of the body. Philosophically speaking, every man, citizen, or Filipino is an embodied subject. 17

As such, one’s soul interacts through his or her body. And in interactions, we come to share, and grow in a

family that built our identity that leads us to adjust with the signs of the times to make the society better. 18 A

family is an institution where the members help each other in order to survive. 19 Thus, every Filipino interacts

with another as they grow in a family. In a wider sense, this concept of Family is not confined to three or four

persons because the whole government and Filipino people is a Family. Wherein there is a father who guides

his countrymen.

Thus, having a blinded head of the family leads to blinded interaction of its members. For me, the

current administration is blinded. Blinded by their intentions and power as evident to their actions being

misaligned to their words from the point-of view of Duterte being not the best President. Thus, having a blind

guide makes its subordinates also feel the lack caused by blindness. The fundamental question now is, what can

we do? “After five years of an administration marred by a bloody drug war, human rights abuses, and later a

mismanaged pandemic response, Filipinos believe it's about time for President Rodrigo Duterte to own up to his

failures and mistakes.”20

We are free beings. Existentialists believe that existence precedes essence.21 We existed first to choose

who or what are we going to be, to find our purpose. But looking in our current situation, it appears that we

were moved by the circumstances. “No Choice”, or no choice? We have a choice. Are we going to practice our

rights better? To vote for good nominees, or to revote for corrupt officials who wanted immunity?

In line with these, President Rodrigo Duterte’s SONAs were good monuments as they became a tool for

commemoration but what made them fail is their hidden intention, i.e., to cover the point-of-views of the

Filipinos towards the inadequate events in the country which led them to be blinded by the President’s personal

interests even though his actions were incompetent and incongruent with his words. From that, what we have to

17
Embodided Subjectivity
18
Intersubjectivity in a Family
19
Family as an Instituion.
20
See Sofia Virtudes, “No more cursing, apologize for failures: What Filipinos want to hear in Duterte’s last SONA,”
Rappler, July 23, 2021, https://www.rappler.com/nation/what-filipinos-want-hear-duterte-sona-2021, (accessed September 21, 2021).
21
See Steven Crowell, “Existentialism,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 Edition), ed. Edward N.
Zalta, https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2020/entries/existentialism/.
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do is to choose. To choose to be guided by the President’s blindness or to dominate that being blinded and be

proper citizens instead, which shares what one can contribute like a family for the betterment of the society.

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