House leadership row upends SONA director’s script

MANILA, Philippines — The leadership squabble at the House of Representatives spoiled what should have been the “master stroke” of movie director Joyce Bernal who directed the third State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Duterte last Monday. 

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Bernal wanted Duterte to pause from his speech to sign the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL), which did not happen when the feud among House leaders resulted in the failure of lawmakers to ratify the measure.

The law seeks to bring lasting peace in Mindanao by creating a new Bangsamoro region with greater economic and political powers. 

The morning session was abruptly suspended by Deputy Speaker Gwendolyn Garcia despite a motion by Deputy Speaker Rolando Andaya Jr. to declare the position of Speaker vacant.

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez was eventually ousted and was replaced by former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.  

If the signing had pushed through, it would have been the first time, at least in recent memory, a President signed a law in the middle of a SONA. 

The House ratified the Bangsamoro measure yesterday. 

Roque said there is a strong chance that Duterte would sign the BOL into law this week.

“I’m sure, because BBL (Bangsamoro Basic Law) did not take center stage in the SONA that there will be some kind of ceremony perhaps here in the Palace to highlight the signing of the BBL,” he said, referring to the BOL by its old name. 

“I think the fact that it was finally passed by Congress is evidence of the political will of the President himself.”

Roque also shrugged off criticisms that Duterte did not say anything new in his 48-minute SONA. 

“Of course they are critics. There is nothing new with their criticism of the President,” he said. 

Different SONA

For congressmen-critics of Duterte, his third short though delayed SONA was markedly different from his two previous annual addresses.

Monday’s speech was “more presidential than before,” opposition Rep. Teodoro Baguilat Jr. said yesterday.

His reason: unlike previous SONAs and other Duterte speeches, the third SONA was without expletives, cursing and attacks against administration critics and foreign dignitaries.

Baguilat said he was informed that without the usual ingredients, the President was not happy with his speech on Monday, though he followed the script apparently written by his SONA handlers and film director Joyce Bernal.

But he and other opposition and militant lawmakers expressed disappointment over Duterte’s push for Charter change for federalism and his decision to keep the controversial Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.

“In the latest survey, the people wanted to hear from the President how to solve poverty, how to generate more jobs and how to stop the continuing rise in inflation,” he said.

Baguilat said the President made a pitch for more tax measures when people “have not yet recovered from the devastating effect of inflation wrought by the TRAIN law.”

He added that the administration should have resorted to tax collection efficiency measures and higher levies on mining and tobacco and alcohol products instead of new and higher fuel taxes under TRAIN.

Baguilat’s opposition colleague Edcel Lagman of Albay said the President failed to address the change he promised the people during the presidential campaign.

“He did not address the reforms the people want, but instead concentrated on the so-called reforms he himself wants to pursue and implement. The people do not clamor for a shift to federalism because the overwhelming majority of them are unaware of federalism, do not care to know about the federal system or do not understand what federalism is all about. But going federal is high on the President’s agenda,” he said.

Lagman said the people want Duterte to reform his “pathetic and unpatriotic response to China’s incursion on and militarization in the West Philippine Sea” but the Chief Executive “insists on his unpopular stance, deferring to China’s expansionism in the West Philippine Sea.”

“The people want economic reforms to arrest poverty. Yet the President insists on the full implementation of the TRAIN law, which has triggered the rise of inflation to 6.1 percent on food and non-alcoholic beverages, thus exacerbating food poverty, further reducing the people’s purchasing power and decreasing the value of real wages,” he added.

Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao said Duterte failed to deliver on his promise on ending the “endo” (end of contract) practice of many employers. 

He criticized the President’s decision to keep the TRAIN law, which he said is making the poor poorer. 

Duterte’s SONA was delayed by more than an hour by the leadership infighting at the House of Representatives. – With Jess Diaz