Present for the nation

It was clear from the way he began that President Rodrigo Duterte felt confident going into his second State of the Nation Address (SONA). The President began by pointing out where he used to sit as a member of Congress nearly 17 years ago. “But I was always absent,” he quipped. A mostly fawning audience laughed.

It was an oblique response to critics who have carped about his absence from recent public events, but delivered casually, as if his absence was a trivial thing. In fact, much of the SONA was delivered casually, in the extemporaneous manner that is vintage Duterte. If there were marching orders in the prepared text that he chose not to speak about, the President’s staff has yet to say.

The President said plenty, though. He asked Congress to, among others, approve a national land use policy that will address food security, housing, and environmental protection; review the law on government procurement to speed up the purchase of medicines and military supplies; create an authority or department that will take charge of disaster response and resiliency; pass the law that will “right-size” government agencies; and revive the death penalty for heinous crimes. He told a Congress controlled by his political allies to approve his administration’s budget for 2017.

Remember that Duterte entered Congress last Monday with a fresh victory, the almost unquestioning approval of his proposal for martial law in Mindanao to be extended for the rest of the year. High trust and satisfaction ratings in two surveys at the end of his first year in office apparently added to his confidence. We do not know if the prepared text included broadsides at his critics, but go after his critics he did. The epithets ranged from “bugok” (rotten) to “gago” (insane) and “awfully stupid.” He vowed to remain “a bully to the enemies of the State.”

All told, the President who faced the nation last Monday sounded more audacious than he did shortly after he won last year’s elections. He told Congress what he needed them to do. He stopped short of telling the people how his first year had gone, but in some ways, it was a welcome change from previous SONAs weighed down by so many video clips and a litany of statistics.

For a President with his ratings, though, the President could have spent less energy and time lambasting his critics. That is a classic populist tactic, rallying one’s followers to view with mistrust (and even anger) anyone who dares ask questions. Truly strong leaders recognize that in a time of uncertainty, further dividing the nation is the last thing one wants to do.