The memorable SONA lines

Many presidents have delivered several State of the Nation Addresses. Interestingly, much of their long-ago delivered speeches are still very relevant to this day.

It's that time of the year when the country's Chief Executive bares the government's "achievements" and the nation's progress. SONA is a mandated event, as stipulated in the Article VII, Section 23 of the 1987 Constitution to allow the sitting President give updates, through addressing the Congress, on what has been done and what should be achieved. SONA is held every last Monday of July. Since 1936, at least 72 SONA speeches have already been delivered, with Manuel L. Quezon giving out the first. In the succeeding photos, see some memorable lines from various Presidents--their messages still true until this very day.

"Over the ruins of our cities and barrios we shall build anew. In this most crucial hour of our history, I look forward to our destiny unafraid, confident that, God willing, ours will be a happy, progressive and prosperous land." President Sergio Osmena, addressing Congress in 1945 during the final days of World War II, told his fellow politicians to get ready to govern a country that would be granted independence in 1946. He said that although the Philippines and the U.S. would remain allies, it was time for Filipinos "who have so long and ardently clamored for self-government (to) prove to the world that we are equal to the most exacting tasks of public administration." One of his earliest offers of friendship to the U.S. was "one division of Filipino troops, under Filipino officers" for the final attack on Japan.

"We are blessed in this country with the freedom of speech and expression whose potent instrument is the Press. Let the public official live in its searching light, fearing nothing if he has nothing to hide and ever ready to defend himself gallantly wherever he is questioned." President Carlos P. Garcia, in his 1959 SONA, talked of the need for better public servants. He created the Presidential Committee on Administrative Performance and Efficiency to investigate and prosecute erring officials. He said corruption "has plagued all administrations before us" but lamented that the administration's drive against corruption earned it a reputation for being corrupt itself.

"We must encourage our people to have a national outlook so that they may feel at home in whatever corner of the Philippines they may find themselves." President Manuel Quezon, speaking before the National Assembly on "the country's conditions and problems." Quezon believed that buying up hacienda land and selling it to farmer tenants would be a burden to the national budget "when there is so much available fertile and untouched public land in many regions of our country, particularly in Mindanao." "We thus have an opportunity to induce the settlement of our sparsely populated areas by the tenants of these “haciendas,” and the money that the Government would surely lose with their purchase could be invested to better advantage in the construction of roads and improvement of health conditions in said uninhabited but rich sections of the Philippines," he said.

"I must remind you of an all-important fact: that what we have set out to do can be realized only through concerted action and unity. More than ever, we must think, plan, and work as one, with only one supreme goal in mind-the promotion of the welfare and happiness of our people." President Ramon Magsaysay, in his 1954 State of the Nation Address, talked of the need for national unity in the face of a deficit, ballooning debt, and "the creeping advance of Communism." "Perhaps you will say that the people are asking for a miracle. But they too performed no less than a miracle when in one great irresistible movement they dared every peril to preserve the right to have a government of their choice," he said, referring to the movement for Philippine independence.

"Let me, however, add that it is wasted effort to steep the young in virtue and morality only to let them realize as they grow up that their elders are neither moral nor virtuous." President Diosdado Macapagal, in 1962, talked of the need for moral regeneration among Filipinos. He said the country needed programs that would restore the moral fiber of the nation and instill "values that would invigorate our democracy." He added that more than legality, a politician's actions should be guided by morality. "To the true public servant and the statesman, there is only one duty—to do with courage not what is popular, but what is good for the people," he said in his 1963 SONA.

"For our survival, and beyond it, our progress is in our hands. We cannot look to anybody else. We can expect no help from any other sector. We must look to ourselves alone. Our nation can be great only according to the scale of our own labors, our self-abnegation." President Ferdinand Marcos in 1966, his first State of the Nation Address in a regime that was in power until 1986. In his State of the Nation Address in 1969, Marcos talked of self-reliance and a New Filipinism: "The extinction of Juan Tamad as the undeserved archetype of the Filipino race and the emergence of a new type of Filipino more competent, more confident, more eager for challenge and achievement than all his ancestors before him."

"This is the glory of democracy, that its most solemn moment should be the peaceful transfer of power." President Corazon Aquino in 1991, her last time to give a State of the Nation Address, promised to step down when her term ends. Her presidency had been marred by coup attempts by "military adventurers who thought that (their) failure to shave qualified them for national leadership." "Some people don’t like the way I dress. Well I didn’t like the way they looked. I am in power and they are out. Surely there is a lesson here to be learned about delusions of self-importance and the realities of power," she said of the coup plotters during her 1991 SONA.

"Today our country calls us — not to die — but to live for it. The patriotism borne of revolution and war must give way to citizenship for peace and development — which means personal commitment, social obligation, civic responsibility." President Fidel V. Ramos, giving his State of the Nation Address in 1996, challenged Filipinos to emulate the heroes of the Philippine Revolution as the country prepared to mark the centenary of the declaration of independence. He said the Philippines had gone through hard times in recent years and that "the only things that sustained us were our belief that crisis can make heroes out of ordinary people — and our faith that we Filipinos can be greater than the sum of all our problems."


"One lost job is one hungry family, and one cold statistic I cannot accept." President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, in his first State of the Nation Address in 1998, promised to lead the Philippines out of a financial crisis that hit Asia in 1997. He ordered government spending reduced by 25 percent, military modernization put on hold, and hinted at abolishing pork barrel funds. "In the face of our fiscal position, our people ask no less," he said. But putting military modernization on hold did not mean Estrada did not have military strength. He warned insurgents in his SONA in 1999: "Hindi binebeybi ang rebelyon. Pinipisa. Kaya, huwag n’yo kaming hamunin!"

“Napakalinaw, napakasimple ang hiling ng mga anak ng Payatas: trabaho. Edukasyon. Sariling tahanan . Idagdag na rin: pagkain sa bawat mesa. Ito ang mithiin ng masa. And this, in common sense and plain talk, is the core of my vision. “ President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2001, said this in her first State of the Nation Address. She was referring to three boys from Payatas who wrote letters to her on paper boats that were meant to get to malacanang through the Pasig River. Although the letters did not reach Arroyo, she heard about it and gave the boys scholarships.

"Kapayapaan at katahimikan po ang pundasyon ng kaunlaran. Habang nagpapatuloy ang barilan, patuloy din ang pagkakagapos natin sa kahirapan." President Benigno Aquino III, during his first State of the Nation Address in 2010. Aquino has made pursuing peace a pillar of his administration, with the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process saying a peace deal between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front could happen this year. "Tungkulin po ng bawat Pilipino na tutukan ang mga pinunong tayo rin naman ang nagluklok sa puwesto. Humakbang mula sa pakikialam tungo sa pakikilahok. Dahil ang nakikialam, walang-hanggan ang reklamo. Ang nakikilahok, nakikibahagi sa solusyon," he also said in 2010.