A post-SONA scenario
PRESIDENT Duterte’s SONA delivered from a prepared script together with ad-libs was full of promises on what he hopes to accomplish during the next six years. Some were not new as they are mere extensions or expansions of past programs. This time, however, it is apparent that people believe that he can walk the talk, that he can indeed make a difference.
The address covered almost all our urgent development concerns – health, education, environment, transport and traffic, agriculture and fisheries, livelihood, peace and order issues (Mindanao, CPP-NPA), rights of women and indigenous groups, reforms in taxation, judiciary, and structure of government. But the impact that it had on many of us is not so much the message but the way it was communicated. He was not your typical forceful and articulate speaker. In fact, he fumbled with the lines on his teleprompter, but it was not eloquence that caught our eyes and ears, but the sincerity, resoluteness, and trustworthiness that he exuded.
The SONA has already been dissected by analysts and citizens. From here, we would like to see how the envisioned programs could now be translated into concrete action plans against the backdrop of current trends that are expected to transform structures, mode of governance, and even the present order of development priorities.
An example of this transformation is the current plan to distribute power to the regions through federalism. This would also devolve power from the hands of a few – the elite and oligarchs – to the many, as well as address the challenge of finding ways to address existing disparities between social groups. Another emerging trend is the search for more meaningful alternatives (such as Gross National Happiness (GNH) to the traditional measure of progress, the Gross National Product or GNP. The third is responding to the current trend towards interdependence, multi-disciplinarity, and collaboration. Thus, every plan, program, and activity must be planned, implemented, and evaluated according to these criteria as well as from a social, economic, cultural, political, and technological framework. An example at the global level is the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) where new structures of governance will be needed at local, national, and global levels to ensure interdependence and collective action.
Following these trends, leadership must be able to communicate interrelationships such as how these trends do relate to a shift to a federalparliamentary system, a structure of governance which is more appropriate to support the decentralization and devolution of power. Education, science, and technology will take centerstage as they are expected to lead the way by helping us analyze the needs of society, facilitate questioning of assumptions, and the framing of possible solutions. These institutions should help us in the search and use and sharing of knowledge, in working together, and in enabling us to move from one economic, cultural, phase or technological phase to the other.
Thus, the convening of regular cabinet meetings assures us that decision-making is indeed collective, that there is shared perception by heads of all government departments of the need to cooperate and share knowledge. I am certain that the Presidential Communication Office is now thinking of a regular forum where the people can dialogue with the President. Cabinet members must likewise endeavor to demonstrate to the people how a task is performed through inter-agency collaboration.
In summary, we expect that thereafter, the President’s men and women in the Cabinet would take the roadmap outlined at the SONA, examine it within the parameters of future trends, show interrelationships of tasks as well as proactive approaches, and most important, how they can involve the people in the search for solutions.