Ocampo, Alyssa Patricia B.

July 31, 2018

12-STEM 1 Ms. Bautista
Reaction Paper: State of the Nation Address 2018
A 50-minute delivery of a 16-page speech made up for the annual State of the Nation

Address in the present year, by the 16th President of the Philippine Republic, Rodrigo Roa

Duterte. Unusual from hour-long speeches full of achievements, platforms and reassurance of

promises to the Filipino people, the speech was direct to the point. Throughout the speech, the

President was on conviction, speaking to the agencies working under his administration as he

pointed out important areas to be given more detail.

In the mention of the President’s ever controversial war on drugs, a call of attention for

the human rights groups was effected as the President then expressed that “the war on drugs is

far from over” as he would put it. The President’s “concern” for human lives however contrasts

the idea of the reality of neglected human rights due the campaign for illegal drugs. The concern

for the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) was also then raised, with the President assuring a

better service by the government to ensure the welfare of the OFWs. Diplomacy among nations

was then discussed by the President as well, specifying the strengthening of ties between the

Philippines and China. However, assuring the Filipino people, he justified that the fight for

territories will not be compromised by the amending relations of both countries.

Citing few of the points in the speech, the level of intricacy for each points made by the

President was on surface level. As professor Jean Franco (2018) of the University of the

Philippines would put it, the short time of the speech deprived a deeper elaboration of how these

projects, campaigns and improvements will be realistic, achievable and sustainable. War on

drugs was declared to stay strong with the administration but the President never mentioned
about how extrajudicial killings will stop. No detailed services to be improved for the OFWs, no

firm plan of how to keep ties close but still respect each other’s territories between China and the

Philippines which appears to be a complicated matter to deal with. The speech was filled with

goals but not with how to achieve it.

On the other hand, the President’s straightforward demeanor is to be commended as it

was a step of valiance to pin point agencies that weren’t performing as excellent as the Filipino

people demands and deserves to be catered of, as news paper columnist Randy David (2018)

expressed.

Overall, the palace scriptwriters did a speech brevity for the President which made the

whole SONA unusual from the past Nation Speech of the which included, ad-libs and outrageous

cursing. A long achievement report was not the content of the speech but rather a call for reform

and improvement for the nation. However, the brevity compromised the thoroughness to be

discussed in each of the topic mentioned by the President which led people to be missing a lot of

the true state of the nation as Dindo Manhit (2018) of philstar.com wrote about.