Days after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo delivered her State of the Nation Address a lot has been said and written about it, but much more are being talked about quite intently regarding the manner with which she put it in context, and the people’s reactions to it.

As may be expected, the reactions are mostly partisan – mostly, but not quite. What is immediately evident is that opposition leaders seem to have suddenly become defensive.

And why not?

After a prolonged recitation of her administration’s achievements since she assumed the presidency, President Arroyo for the first time trained her ire on opposition leaders as she lashed at them for their unbridled allegations of unsubstantiated charges such as dictatorial tendencies, term extension beyond the constitutional limit, widespread graft and corruption, and bad governance, among others.

Staunchly rejecting the accusations, she pointed to the record of achievements of her administration that she said she expects her successor to further push through to ensure the country’s peace and progress.

“I am falsely accused,” she rued, “without proof, of using my office for personal profit.” And yet, she said, those who accuse her of such wrongdoing publicly flaunt the "lifestyle and spending habits that made them walking proofs of that crime.”

She did not name names, to be sure, but when she mentioned about, “Those who live in glass houses should cast no stones,” it was clear she was pointing to former President Joseph Estrada, particularly when she said, “Those who should be in jail should not threaten it, especially when they have been there.”

There was no hint of personal pain in her expression, but the reaction from the crowd at the Batasan was punitive.

Estrada, as everybody knows, was pardoned by President Arroyo immediately after he was convicted of plunder by the Sandiganbayan over the objections of some sectors. The former president, however, continued to be one of the Arroyo administration’s severest critics.

In response, Estrada the other day described President Arroyo’s sneer as “direct threat” to those critical of the Arroyo government.

“This is an indication of the cruelty and the dictatorship that the current administration is capable of, and another attempt to stifle our freedom of speech and expression,” the former president said in a prepared statement.

On the other hand, Senator Manuel A. Roxas, while not mentioned by name by the President in her address but felt alluded to, chose to simply ignore it, explaining that he does not pay attention to such attacks.

“What I am concerned with,” he told the media, “are the cries of despair of our countrymen.”

President Arroyo alluded to Roxas’ reaction while blaming her for the delay in the implementation of the cheaper Medicine Law.

Roxas, a declared presidential candidate of the Liberal party which he heads, was reported to have used cusswords in public.

“To those who want to be president,” she said in her SoNA, “this advice: If you really want something, just do it hard, do it well. Don’t pussyfoot. Don’t pander, and don’t say bad word in public.”

And the Batasan crowd responded with knowing alacrity.

But what I like most about President Arroyo’s last SoNA, was the way she fought back at her political adversaries like a true leader who knows what she is doing: You can always tell a leader, but you cannot tell her much.

As has been said, leadership is the only ship that doesn’t pull into a safe port in a storm.

(zhern_218@yahoo.com)