Henceforth, public to judge Aquino’s actions based on his final Sona

PRESIDENT AQUINO is set to address for the sixth and final time both houses of Congress when they open their respective regular session next week. This will be an opportune time for him to present the accomplishments of his administration for the past five years. This might as well be a chance to tackle once more our country’s lingering problems.

Perhaps we should look at how the public will react to the speech. For sure, we can’t do away with the fact that some will negatively respond to the speech and others will praise it. Whatever, P-Noy’s final State of the Nation Address is expected to provide much-needed information on the “true state of the nation.”

The people will expect much and probably more after the address. The President, with his advisers, must look into how they’ll be able to meet public demands and expectations, seeing to it that only definitive accounts are made of the real situation we are facing.

As for me, we should not only consider what the President will say about what he has done in the last five years; we should also look forward to what he will say about his plans not only for the remainder of his term but, more importantly, after he steps down in June 2016.

What P-Noy will say in his last Sona will provoke more debates. Worth noting are the sentiments from the various sectors, whether they are mentioned or not in his speech.

Interestingly, the determining factor will always be how the President acts after the Sona, as whatever he does from then on will be subjected to public scrutiny on the basis of what he had said there.

—MARK JEROME T. BONGALON,

markjerome.bongalon

@bicol-u.edu.ph