Continuity

It took two hours and 12 minutes for President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III to say his goodbye and thank you. Yet at the start of his valedictory state of the nation address (SONA) last Monday, President Aquino told his audience he was not feeling well. For such efforts, President Aquino did well notwithstanding hecklers outside and inside the halls of the Batasan Pambansa in Quezon City.

Interspersed by more than ten video presentations, interrupted by 146 rounds of applause and at least five coughing fits, the President’s final SONA ended way past six o clock in the evening. The Makabayan bloc of party-list representatives made last-ditch efforts to steal the thunder from the President’s SONA. But their antics backfired.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. kept cool despite being visibly piqued at how their guest was treated at their very own House. Senate president Franklin Drilon reportedly booed the antics of the Makabayan bloc who included his arch critic, Kabataan party-list Terry Ridon.

Even before the SONA ended, the usual militant protest rallies were dissipated by rains and water cannons when some troublemakers started violence earlier in the day. What was more disturbing was the mauling done by militant protesters at Commonwealth Avenue after they noticed two plainclothes policemen taking photos of the rally.

There is simply no justification for such violent attacks on persons of authority merely doing their jobs, though surreptitiously. Our policemen should brush up on how to avoid detection while doing intelligence work.

It is to the credit of newly installed Philippine National Police (PNP) director-general Ricardo Marquez that nothing more serious marred the President’s SONA the other day. Incidentally, the PNP chief is our featured guest in today’s Kapihan sa Manila Bay at Luneta Hotel. Also invited is Buhay party-list Rep. Lito Atienza for his “contra-SONA.”

The Senate and the House minority leaders do the “contra-SONA” as a tradition in Congress to counter the President’s SONA. For the past five years, we have not seen the kind of fiscalizing on President Aquino’s SONA.

Practically letting the cat out of the bag, the testimonial in President Aquino’s SONA for Department of the Interior and Local Government Sec. Mar Roxas II was a giveaway. It, however, became anti-climax of the expected anointment of the presumptive presidential candidate of the Liberal Party (LP) holding their convention any day this week.

“You cannot put a good man down,” P-Noy said of Roxas. The President specifically referred to the attacks on the leadership style of Roxas dished out by the latter’s rivals and detractors. But P-Noy was less than candid. It is the survey ratings that have been putting down LP’s presumptive standard-bearer. Pre-polls done by both the Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia showed Roxas has been trailing behind other presidential wannabes.

Sen. Grace Poe came out as top choice in the second quarter pre- polls survey of voters’ most preferred presidential candidate. She dislodged Vice President Jejomar Binay. Roxas improved though his rating in the latest surveys with 21% and ranked third in SWS. Roxas got 10% in Pulse Asia, tied at fourth place with former President Joseph Estrada.

President Aquino started reaching out to Poe for obvious reasons. She ran and won as Aquino-backed senatorial candidate during the May 2013 elections. After several meetings at the Palace, Poe, an independent senator, disclosed the President appealed to her that the Aquino administration could not afford to split ranks at this stage.

From all indications, the administration wants a strong candidate like Poe to run with Roxas. But Poe comes with a baggage named Sen. Francis Escudero, a fellow independent. Also his ally, President Aquino invited Escudero to a meeting with Poe together, and later all three of them with Roxas.

As to why he conducted these meetings, P-Noy gave us the reason in his SONA that served as the perfect venue for him to impress this upon his close allies and supporters. “From this perspective, the next election will be a referendum for the Straight and Righteous Path. You will decide whether the transformation we are experiencing today will be permanent, or simply a brief and lucky deviation from a long history of failure,” the President pointed out.

President Aquino personally renewed this appeal to his allies and LP partymates. He told them: “There is a sentiment that I want to share with you; it is best captured in the question: Will we lose all that we have built — all that we have worked hard for — in one election?”

The live telecast of the SONA on television turned split screen while the President echoed these sentiments and zoomed in on the three presidential wannabes also listening to him among the audience: Binay, Roxas, and Poe.

Noticeably, Escudero was nowhere in the TV network’s screen.

However, after those meetings, Escudero made a surprise move a day after the President’s SONA. Escudero yesterday resigned as chairman of two powerful Senate panels: finance committee and the joint congressional oversight committee on public expenditures. His resignation was seen as a notice that a tandem of Poe and Escudero is a go.

Vice President Binay resigned last month from the Aquino Cabinet to pursue full steam ahead his presidential bid. Binay ran as vice presidential candidate of the opposition in May 2010 elections and won against Roxas. Binay is back again as opposition candidate of the United Nationalist Alliance as its standard bearer in 2016.

The 55-year old bachelor P-Noy presumably plans to stay active in politics even after the presidency. Better yet, he could play the role of elder statesman like what former President Fidel Ramos has been doing since he stepped down from office in 1998.

Even as his administration is in its last eleven months, President Aquino repeatedly declared toward the end of his valedictory SONA: “This is only the beginning.” He repeated it seven times.

Citing the country is “only in the first chapter of the great story of the Filipino people,” the outgoing President vowed to see through the continuity of the Aquino administration whoever succeeds him in office at Malacañang. Just how he would do it, P-Noy did not say in his ultimate SONA.

Even as his administration is in its last eleven months, President Aquino repeatedly declared toward the end of his valedictory SONA: ‘This is only the beginning.’ He repeated it seven times.