The President must cut through the fog of doubt and uncertainty over his capacity to lead, and debunk emerging narrative of a government adrift

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivers his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, July 22, under circumstances that are inhospitable to rhetorical entreaties.  

From 80% in June 2023, a month before his second SONA, the President’s approval rating tumbled a few months after, to 65% in September, over his administration’s perceived inability to stabilize prices, according to Pulse Asia. Since then, according to the polling firm, inflation has remained the top “urgent national concern.” The President’s approval and trust ratings have not bounced back.

But there is more at stake in this year’s SONA than the President’s approval ratings. 

With the midterm elections set for next year and the pre-campaign positioning already in motion, the President needs to regain political capital, and quickly. 

He is the unwritten candidate in the midterm ballot. The election results will shape his political future and define his legacy. This year’s SONA could be the most important speech of his entire political life.

Debunk narrative

Every president since 1986 has used the SONA as a platform for one-way communication. For the duration of the SONA, a sitting president has a nation captive to his or her voice and narrative. On live television, and across all media channels, the President gets to drumbeat achievements, make a pitch for pet legislation, and reframe losses as opportunities.

But President Marcos Jr. needs to do more than that. 

He must cut through the fog of doubt and uncertainty over his capacity to lead. He must debunk the emerging narrative of a government adrift and a leadership out of touch, unable to alleviate the conditions of a public groaning from the unmitigated rise in the prices of prime commodities.

The rhetoric, delivery, and demeanor must convey a calm and level-headed temperament. They must inspire confidence, project certainty and strength. The last thing the President needs is to be seen as indifferent to the public’s plight, clueless after two years in power, and incapacitated by the demands of the presidency and the din of contrarian voices from the South.

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But this SONA will also serve as the President’s opening salvo for the midterm elections. This will serve as his bully pulpit from which he can parry the blows from his critics and frame the choices in next year’s elections.  

More than being a statesman, on that stage the President needs to be a salesman. 

His sales pitch to the nation should strive to win back those who vacillate. It should rekindle the passion of 2022, and inspire his supporters to close ranks. The SONA speech must give them a reason to believe again, to continue buying in instead of opting out.

For this he could also resort to razzle-dazzle. His team can spice up the speech with elements of theater. A speech as big as this one needs to be a performance. 

It’s not new.

In one of his SONAs, the late former president Fidel Ramos introduced the nation to Mang Pandoy, the face of the poor who received consultancies and dole-outs from his administration and died still poor. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo brought out three kids and weaved a story about them writing their wishes on “bangkang papel.” These paper boats, by some miracle, survived tugboats, water lilies, and the polluted waters of the Pasig, reaching Malacañang and Arroyo’s desk. The late former president Noynoy Aquino delivered every SONA with stylized Powerpoint presentations, with graphs, piecharts, and smiling faces while government services deteriorate. Brillante Mendoza’s crazy camera angles of former president Rodrigo Duterte disoriented viewers. On hindsight, these frames were accurate depictions of Duterte’s distortions of law and facts. 

Real and authentic

But we must caution that soaring rhetoric and props may not be enough. 

If the speech intends to offer proof of empathy and competence, it must avoid the abstract. Realizations or takeaways should be prompted by actual positive experience with government interventions. These takeaways must be organic,  authentic sentiments not forced or manufactured through media management or the echo chambers of social media. Words and fancy numbers cannot substitute for doing good or even better.

The latest Pulse Asia survey said the public wants the President to talk about his plans to fight inflation. But the work of convincing a skeptical public happens even before the SONA. At this time, his Cabinet, senior officials, and the entire government machinery should be softening the ground, rolling out programs to convince the public that the President is on the ball when it comes to inflation.

So far, the biggest story is from a government corporation and its ambitious plan to build a Taylor Swift-ready stadium in Clark. Someone didn’t get the memo. – Rappler.com

Joey Salgado is a former journalist, and a government and political communications practitioner. He served as spokesperson for former Vice President Jejomar Binay.