The peoples' contra SONA

The Filipinos are sick and tired of promises and excuses. There are no more chances to invent alibis to prop up the economy which is going down the drain. Among the ASEAN 11, the Philippines is being left behind by the high-performing economies of Indonesia and Vietnam, followed by Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Brunei. The Philippines is a poor number 7, hovering in the vicinity of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Timor-Leste.,

The president has no concrete plan to turn the economy around. The national leadership is in shambles. The two highest officials are not even talking to each other. If they cannot fix their team, how can we trust that they can fix the nation? The president is reactive instead of being proactive and anticipatory. The vice president is touring the world attacking the president while the Filipinos are wallowing in poverty. The Dutertes are poised to take over the national leadership but they cannot even fix the floods in Davao.

How can the people fix the nation when the two top leaders are attacking each other? They cannot rise over and above their own petty and parochial biases and hatred to save the country from total disintegration. We have a president who cannot even reconcile with his own sister who keeps on protecting the woman who threatened the chief executive, the first lady, and the former speaker with assassination. We have leaders who are petty, consumed by their own emotion and have no strategic plan for the people and the nation.

The state of the nation is in shambles. We have a senator who has been hiding from the rule of law for nine months now and continues to receive salaries, benefits, and privileges. He is a fugitive from justice and yet his relatives who still get their complete compensation packages are not doing anything to contribute to the solution and continue to become part of the problem. We have two other senators who are facing non-bailable crimes and are languishing in detention.

We have a brother and a sister in the Senate who are lawyering for the defense instead of acting as senator-judges with the cold neutrality of true magistrates. We have a vice president who instead of attending her impeachment trial or attending the SONA is touring the world. She is bringing a whole caboodle of government employees who are spending public funds to enjoy the beautiful sights of Europe and meet the OFWs just to attack the president and campaign for 2028. Instead of attending the impeachment trial, she asks that the taxpayers pay for the food and drinks of her huge defense team.

We have bureaucrats like the DILG and the PNP who cannot even arrest fugitives from justice. We have government officials who are paid huge salaries and benefits who cannot even implement agrarian reform, cannot address the prompt and proper preparation for natural disasters, cannot assure food security, cannot defend our territories from the bullying tactics of China, and cannot give hopes top the people amidst the pending drought and famine.

The state of the nation is deplorable. The leaders are bickering. Corruption is unabated. Inflation is up. Employment is down. The people are suffering. The vice president is enjoying her foreign trips while her own Davao is wallowing in flood and poverty. And yet she brags about topping the survey and is snubbing the constitutional processes against her. She threatens to take over the nation when she has no concrete solution either. The masses are being hoodwinked, cajoled, and tricked by fake news and trolls who are paid to poison the minds of the masses.

If we do not shape up, China is poised to attack us and this country will become a province of Beijing even before Taiwan is recovered by Xi Jinping. It has been our misfortune to be governed by two incompetent and immature leaders. It is time to think Risa, Leni, or Tulfo in 2028, if only to save the state of the nation.