Joker to snub SONA, calls it a ‘fashion show’

Joker to snub SONA, calls it a ‘fashion show’

GMANews.TV - Thursday, July 24

MANILA, Philippines - Administration Sen. Joker Arroyo on Wednesday said he will boycott President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address on July 28, saying it will likely be filled with the usual niceties.


A report over radio dzXL quoted Arroyo as saying that he does not want to listen to the same statements year after year, and further likened the SONA at the Batasan Pambansa to a “fashion show" where personalities are trying to one-up one another with their clothes.

However, Arroyo cleared that he has always chosen to boycott SONAs no matter who the sitting president is, even during his days as a congressman.

On the other hand, administrator ally Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile confirmed his attendance at the SONA, saying it is their job as lawmakers to attend it.

The senators’ statements came a day after several other lawmakers showed divisiveness over their attendance on July 28.

A radio report on Tuesday quoted opposition Sen. Francis Escudero as saying it was his “obligation as a senator" to attend the SONA even as his fellow opposition Senators Aquilino Pimentel Jr, Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada, and Panfilo Lacson have called it a “waste of time."

Senators Loren Legarda and Manuel “Mar" Roxas, meanwhile, said they would show up because they want to know if President Arroyo has a “long-term solution" for the food crisis plaguing the country today.

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, on the other hand, had said that he is still uncertain about his attendance, adding that he would still have to “pray hard" before deciding whether to come to hear the SONA.

Presidential Management Staff Cerge Remonde had earlier said in a radio interview also on Tuesday that calling the SONA “waste of time" is the "lowest end of political activity."

Remonde said it is the duty of all lawmakers to attend the inaugural session of Congress, which includes the SONA.

"It is as much a duty of every member of the Senate and the House to attend the inaugural session of Congress as it is the duty of the President to deliver the SONA. Failing to attend the inaugural session which is a primordial duty...is tantamount to dereliction of duty," he said. - GMANews.TV


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