“NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.”
That’s just about the only thing that stuck to mind in the boring one-hour-and-a-half long self-glorification that is President Aquino’s third state of the nation address.
And the memorability principally borne by that phrase’s being no more than a play of Adidas’ advert, “Impossible is nothing.”
Previous Aquino SONAs, though as long in platitudes and as short in programs, at least had the catchy “Kayo ang Boss ko,” and “matuwid na daan.” Not to forget the “wang-wang.”
Soundbytes have become to Aquino what exhibits were to the his predecessors. In terms of presidential speeches.
Was it in 2004 that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo put on the Batasan dais the three boys from Payatas with their bangkang papel set on the Pasig River to reach Malacañang Palace? So what happened to them?
The state of poverty they represented having worsened since then.
In 2006, GMA’s SONA exhibit was Major General Jovito Palparan to impact to the nation her determined hammer-and-thongs approach to the insurgency. Cry Butcher, and let loose the dogs of war! The militants could only cringe in terror, if not in rage.
In 2007, the human exhibits ran the gamut of governors and mayors, Cabinet men and entrepreneurs, to members of the perfumed set. A social call, a soiree was how last year’s SONA came to be labeled.
(Come to think of it, isn’t Aquino’s past SONA essentially the same? All Hollywood glamour down to the red carpet?)
In 2008, it was the turn of “everyday heroes” to be exhibited by GMA.
Exhibit A was Rodney Berdin, 13, of Barangay Rombang, Belison town in Antique who saved his mother, brother, and sister from drowning in the raging waters of the Sibalom River at the height of Typhoon Frank.
Exhibit B was Victoria Mindoro who used to earn P5,000 a month as farmer and factory worker but now gets as much as P10,000 a week as a beneficiary of an agrarian reform community in Kabasalan, Zamboanga Sibugay.
Exhibit C was Alan Almanse, 40, college graduate and father of two, who in his past twin jobs as fisherman and tricycle driver only earned P100 a day but now gets a daily income of P1,000 a day as whaleshark officer under the tourism program of the government.
In 2009, I got totally clueless on GMA’s SONA.
Rather than the human kind, it was his mangling the King’s language that the Actor Joseph Estrada extensively exhibited in his presidency. Not to mention his spirituous delinquency.
In his inaugural address though where the immortal – but immaterial – “walang kama-kamag-anak, walang kaibi-kaibigan.”
The General Fidel Valdez Ramos took his cue from the 1992 presidential debates and grabbed Mang Pandoy as one centerpiece of his administration.
For those who have forgotten and those too young to remember, Mang Pandoy it was that lived in a shanty at the Manila Bay reclamation area, and, in desperation, said he would have himself shot by any thrill seeker for P100,000 just to provide some future for his kids.
Each of the presidential candidate was asked what program of government he/she would craft for Mang Pandoy who was made the representation of the Filipino Everyman.
Ramos exhibited his find at his very inaugural; government agencies were promptly mobilized to help raise the state of Mang Pandoy’s being through his transfer to an old Bliss housing site, the provision of livelihood programs and even a television talk show of his own over the government station Channel 4.
With Ramos out of the presidency, the last thing heard of Mang Pandoy was his having returned to his old miserable haunts. And then, some years back, news of his dying of tuberculosis in a shanty.
For the sainted Cory Aquino, it was her martyred husband Ninoy that was made permanent exhibit in her presidential talks.
In her historic address to the joint session of the US Congress in her first state visit, Tita Cory brought the House down with her opening spiel: “Three years ago, I left America in grief to bury my husband, Ninoy Aquino.
I thought I had left it also to lay to rest his restless dream of Philippine freedom. Today, I have returned as the president of a free people.”
(Were the son’s speechwriter as great as his mother’s…Teddy Boy Locsin, take a bow.)
And then the Great Ferdinand.
It was Marcos that really blazed the trail in presidential oratory using human exhibits for impact.
During his 1981 state visit to the US, Marcos – I am not so sure now if it was at the Capitol or at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. – made a reasoned argument on the demise of the communist insurgency by presenting as evidence on-exhibit Ka Luis Taruc and Nilo Tayag, respectively representing the Old Guards and the New Order of the Red movement, marching under his New Society banner.
Of course, the insurgents back home quickly branded the two as some sort of “capitalist roaders” and sell-outs, Tayag even appended with the sobriquet Payag.
Soundbytes and human exhibits. Integral parts of presidential speeches. Memorable or forgettable, depending on the deliverer.
