P-Noy to deliver SONA with or without GMA

MANILA, Philippines - It is a “constitutional mandate” for President Aquino to deliver his annual State of the Nation Address (SONA) before Congress, and he will do so with or without former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo attending the event, a Palace spokesman said yesterday.

“It is a constitutional mandate (for Aquino) to report to the House and the Senate on the state of the nation, and therefore the President will do so regardless of the presence or absence of Representative Arroyo,” Secretary Edwin Lacierda said.

As it is now, the presidential spokesman stressed that the Chief Executive has been very busy with his speechwriters, and has been meeting with Secretary Ricky Carandang and Undersecretary Manuel Quezon III on the drafting of the speech.

“The President has been preparing for the SONA with total indifference as to whether Representative Arroyo is attending or not,” Lacierda said, noting that this is nothing new, especially because Arroyo, now a Pampanga congresswoman, absented herself from Aquino’s first SONA in July 2010.

“We’re no longer surprised. She didn’t attend the first time. So there is a precedent,” he said.

The Cabinet secretary refused to give details or even give Palace reporters any glimpse of what will be Aquino’s SONA. He called on the public to just wait and see, particularly the critics who have nothing good to say about the Aquino government.

“Basically it’s a SONA moving forward. Certainly (it will discuss) what we have done, what we’re doing, where we are headed. Basically those are the thrusts of the SONA. Where we were prior to this administration coming in,” Lacierda said.

“Certainly it will be highlighting what we have done for the past year and moving forward.”

Lacierda and Carandang are also both clueless on the length of the speech.

The Philippine National Police, tasked with security preparations for the SONA, is expected to adopt a maximum tolerance policy on protesters who will be gathering along Commonwealth Avenue while Aquino delivers his speech before Congress.

Earlier, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the second SONA of the President will – just like his first in July 2010 – inevitably take a swipe at his predecessor, albeit for “comparison” purposes only.

“You cannot merely throw out figures without having a point of comparison,” Valte told anchor Pinky Webb, host of “Dateline Philippines” program over ABS-CBN News Channel, recently.