Scrap the Sona tradition, too

Breaking political traditions is getting to be a habit of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte.

He did not attend his proclamation in Congress as the duly elected president in the May 9 elections. He will take his oath of office in Malacañang instead of at the Quirino Grandstand.

His inauguration will be separate from that of Vice President-elect Leni Robredo. He will be sworn to office by his fraternity brother, Supreme Court Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes, not Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Duterte has cited various reasons for skipping the rituals that marked presidential transitions in the past. That’s his privilege. He is not obliged to follow tradition. No law is violated by his refusal to assume the presidency in the manner or style of his predecessors.

All that is required to legitimize his ascendancy to power is for him to swear or affirm, at high noon of June 30, that he will faithfully and conscientiously fulfill the duties of his office, preserve and defend the Constitution, execute our laws, do justice to every person, and consecrate himself to the service of

the nation.

Since Duterte appears to be in the mood to defy past political practices, he may want to consider doing away with the annual State of the Nation Address (Sona) in Congress.

The Sona is an American tradition foisted on us by our former colonial masters during the Commonwealth period. It formed part of the 1935 Constitution as a provision that states “… the President shall from time to time give to the Congress of the Philippines information of the State of the Nation, and recommend to its consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”

The clause in the US Constitution from which this provision was copied reads: “[The President] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”

The Sona provision was carried over to the 1973 Constitution that President Ferdinand Marcos used to give a semblance of legitimacy to his dictatorial rule, then later to the Freedom Constitution that President Cory Aquino adopted in 1986 as a transitional government framework, and, finally, the present Constitution.

The 1987 Constitution states that “the President shall address the Congress at the opening of its regular session.” The start of that session has been fixed on the fourth Monday of July, although Congress can provide for a different date for the commencement of its regular business.

The State of the Union Address in the United States has evolved from the prescribed “time to time” into an annual affair. But, unlike its Philippine counterpart, the practice hardly attracts the attention of the American public. Only politicians and social personalities who want to be seen rubbing elbows with the

powers that be make a fuss about it.

The opposite is true in our country. Here, preparations for the Sona have taken on the features of a major peace and order activity. Thousands of uniformed personnel are pulled out of their assignments to secure the Batasan complex in Quezon City.

Office and school activities around the area are suspended, traffic is rerouted, and civil disturbance units are deployed to prevent demonstrators from disturbing the annual event that puts the country’s top leaders under one roof.

In addition, the Sona has evolved into a social event where the lawmakers and their spouses flaunt their resplendent clothes and expensive jewelry while walking on a red carpet.

The masa can only gawk at its representatives who have a license to dip their fingers into the public treasury to indulge their vanities.

True, the Sona is a constitutional requirement, but it need not be done in its present form and manner. Duterte does not have to go to Congress to personally inform the lawmakers of his program of action and the laws he needs to accomplish it.

Personal lobbying and horse-trading, not speeches, will determine the fate of the legislative action that a president may want from Congress. With the supermajority support that Duterte’s henchmen in the legislature will enjoy, securing legislative support for his national agenda should be a walk in the park.

Thus, a live televised feed of his Sona from Malacañang would suffice and constitute a substantial compliance with his reporting obligation to Congress.

Through this scheme, the public is spared the traffic jam that results from the closure of the streets around the Batasan premises. In addition, no expenses will be incurred for the deployment of policemen in the area and, most importantly, without the attendant publicity that accompanies a president’s presence in Congress, the lawmakers will have no incentive to indulge in their fashion extravaganza.

The Sona tradition belongs to the political dustbin.

Raul J. Palabrica (rpalabrica@inquirer.com.ph) writes a weekly column in the Business section of the Inquirer.