Jeramos, Anna Mae C.

July 29, 2018

BPA 1-3 Introduction to Public Administration

Reaction Paper: SONA 2019

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has already delivered his State of the Nation Address for this
year. Taking no sides, but I must say I am a bit impressed of what he has spoken during his
speech, but sadly there are issues that weren’t justified by our president. Everything was quite
promising, and we will never know if his promises and plans will be happening, unless he will
make it happen. His annual disapproval rating has fallen down to 3%, which is a good thing for
him to consider that his people are being satisfied of how he runs his administration.
He tackled different issues that our country is currently facing; from his Drug War Campaign
up to the small concerns of Public Service of the Government Offices. He told us that “we have
not learned our lesson” yet, addressing the issues of the numbers of victims of criminality rooted
by the use and distribution of illegal drugs, and corruption, graft, and plunder cases of the
crocodiles in the government. He was in position of death penalty for illegal drug-related cases
as well as corruption, which I have to decline and disagree primarily because of the blind Justice
System in the Philippines. In my own point of view, he, the president himself, knows how dirty our
politics is and how blind our justice is, but he is still insisting this death penalty without fixing first
how justice works fairly to everyone. How can he eliminate the real violators if the system is taking
sides? How can he fight for such penalties without fighting over prejudice?
He also mentioned the issue in the West Philippine Sea and stated that he is not ready to
conduct war with China. Apparently, I have learned that the territory is not owned by the
Philippines and no one has the right to claim the territory. Philippines, together with another four
countries has only sovereign rights to collect and use resources from the area. That is why, I
might consider his words: “West Philippine Sea is ours, no if’s and but’s”, a fallacy of ignorance.
He addressed the Trabaho Bill which is efficient for all the employees in our country as he
promised a better Salary Standardization and Salary Increase, most especially of the Filipino
teachers. As well as, the TRAIN Law prior to Tobacco, Alcohol, and products that are necessary
to the consumers. However, as an opinion, unemployment is not yet answered and it is one of
the reasons of poverty in our country. Increasing the tax to be paid means increasing the prices
and values of the products. He hasn’t addressed how will he be solving poverty, although
according to him, poverty has fallen down to 21% and his administration had already 6 Million
Filipinos taken away from poverty.
The president also looked over the services of the government offices. Their failures to serve
the Filipinos properly, and the extortion of money for every transaction. He mentioned that
“corruption is everywhere”. Public trust is devalued by these employees who do not care for good
public service. It is impressive that President Duterte spends time on this issue, but his answer
for this problem that we must do scandals so that the problem would reach him, is a mere
destruction of peace and order. In line with this, he spoke for the Malacañang’s 24 hours public
service to pay attention to the concerns of the citizens, which I found as a better way on how
deterioration of public service must be reported.
 Our President has planned so much for the betterment of our country, he is a good leader in
the field, but at some point, he failed us and he will still fail us—but never a reason for us to stop
supporting the President, because first and foremost, being the head of so many people is not
easy, particularly when the people is trying to oppose everything. He might be bad at speaking,
he might have dirty mouth, but for me, it is authenticity.
Considering myself as a student of Public Administration, good government and good
governance is the foundation of everything in my perspective. However, politically and
economically, President Duterte is a real time good-officiating public servant.
My stand is the fact of imperfection. People hates every person to be elected as the president
for the simple mistakes and failures left to the hands of the incumbent one, without understanding
how everything works and how much tiring it is to serve people who do not know how to abide
first before complaining. I am not a fan of any political personality, but somehow, I know how to
give importance to these people, especially the countable ones that serves the government with
truth, honesty, and transparency. I would always advice my fellow countrymen to support people
who would die fighting for our country that to criticize and hate them, like as if they were a disgrace
to the Filipino race.