MEDIUM RARE

State of the Nation Address. SONA. As old fogeys will tell you, a sitting president’s yearly report to the nation that dates back to “panahon pa ni Quezon,” i.e., Quezon’s time, circa 1935. The format has stayed the same from one president to the next. And as anyone who speaks the vernacular knows, “sana” is our wish word. “Sana” it will rain; “sana” it won’t rain. While the incumbent president recites his accomplishments year on year, his audience can only ruminate on what could have been and which of their (unstated) wishes could possibly resonate with the speechmaker’s goals. Over the years, Malacañang’s communications teams – writers, directors, producers working on different media platforms – have tried to inject a detail here and there to make their product appear different from their predecessors’. To reinvent the format of the SONA, one would need a brand-new concept, preferably accompanied by the clever, creative use of technology to overhaul the whole thing, when it’s obvious that keeping to form and style is precisely what tradition calls for. SONA is tradition. Would President BBM’s chief creative, Paul Soriano, allow Monday’s event to depart from the SONA’s classic structure and form? I don’t believe so, yet it might be fun to try something drastically different, in tune with “Bagong Pilipinas.” How about including a few paragraphs – a few minutes – to shine the spotlight on the nonperformers and underperformers in government? That should catch everyone’s attention, and keep it there. What an exercise in audience participation, like those noontime shows on TV that hold viewers’ attention with cash prizes in the hundreds of thousands dangling before their eyes as rewards and, more to the point, as surprises! For the SONA audience, the lure and allure of the President singling out the laggards would resonate with citizens’ frustrations and complaints against certain government agencies: The President understands their problems! What a breakthrough! Not only does he speak their language, he is one of them! Am I dreaming? Afraid so. Dreaming aloud and wide awake. No, not this President. He’s very much a nice guy, really, a gentle gentleman who chooses his words carefully, like a diplomat. No, he wouldn’t embarrass anybody on a stage as public as his report to the nation.