The content of the SONA speech is usually developed from inputs of the departments thru the Cabinet secretaries and staff, from other line agencies, and from the economic, security, and political consultants, etc. It is then cobbled together by the Executive Secretary and given to the chosen speechwriter. The speechwriter, if he/she is a professional, or is experienced enough, will then sit down with his/her principal to — as it were — “acquire” his frame of mind and general tone.
What is the general tone of PDu30 throughout his presidency?
To appear strong.
To appear strong even when weakened.
To appear strong even when he is resigned to the reality of deaths by a pandemic he cannot figure out.
Alas, the appearance of being strong is borne costliest
by those he has chosen to be his casualties
in the campaign to consolidate
his power
in the twilight of his SONA.
In this regard, it seems that finally, PDu30 has found a speechwriter that he thinks
is good enough for him …
such that his ad libs and meandering
still flowed closely to the theme,
or the tone,
of his SONA speech and his presidency,
such that the expletives were reduced to a minimum of five or so :
And the less ad libs, the less expletives –
in this regard,
the speechwriter has succeeded.
And what is the theme or general tone again? That he can give anyone a good beating even when the world has been whipped.
He finally found a speechwriter who has figured him out
even as they could not figure themselves out
of this plague
that had whipped everyone
and everything in its path,
whether appearing strong
or in reality
weathered out.
Just based on a content-analysis of the speech (and i don’t have a first-hand source of the identity), the straightforwardness and no-rhetoric writing style,
and by comparing the language with the published work of the person,
the speechwriter seems to be a former journalist intellectually capable of providing the President the ideological frame necessary
amid the disarray of his thoughts and the method of his work.
This is probably a speechwriter he will keep until the end of his term or the end of these days
whichever comes first
where he needs to face uncertainty
with an appearance that he is not finite
and not uncertain.
In their best of paradigmatic minds,
the best that they could offer the nation
is to wait for the vaccine …
as along the way
they and their cohorts find a way
to perpetuate themselves
or their successors
in power.
But when and how — he says December or January — but he doesn’t know that, no one knows that for sure.
Because
of the strong leaders
the strongest is one who,
when faced with uncertainty,
is able to unite
all of the people
on a definite resolve
that we will not just appear to be strong
when in fact we are just waiting ,
that we will prevail
even when the odds
are still gaining.
We may not be able to figure ourselves out
of the virused haze,
nor win decisively
the race
against the thousands of dying,
but we can buy ourselves time
and
we can buy our people time
by mitigating the number of deaths
and by alleviating the suffering
of the many who are barely surviving.
This, by building the capacity of hospitals and health care workers,
by rebuilding the economy,
by caring for an ailing country;
this —
not by appearing to be strong when in fact unknowing –
but by accepting uncertainty without defeat,
and by navigating
