No details on SONA yet, except P700-per-plate budget for merienda

The Malacañang Palace (Facebook photo)

MANILA – The Malacañang has not yet disclosed the theme or details of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s last State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 27.

But just like in the previous SONAs, Aquino will report to his bosses, the Filipino people, the accomplishments of his promises and the completed programs of his administration.

Conversely, the Palace has maintained that the President will indeed sum up the last five years and will disclose his plans for the last months of his term. With regards to the challenges the government have been through, they could not say if these will also be included.

“It would be best to wait for his speech. All I can say is that in all of his SONAs, he had been truthful to the people,” Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a Philippine Star report.

But while details of Aquino’s speech remain blurry, the ‘expensive’ P700-per-plate budget for the event’s merienda (snacks) has been heavily criticized.

The event’s buffet table will include Angus beef with soft rolls at the carving station, carbonara and puttanesca pastas, bacon-wrapped chicken rolls, chicken barbecue kebabs, shrimp rolls with sweet chili sauce and bread sticks with four-cheese artichoke dip.

The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) questioned the necessity of such lavish merienda while Filipinos suffer from poverty and food shortage around the country.

“For lawmakers and VIP guests, the SONA menu for merienda may look ordinary or even cheap. But for a jobless person and for the many families living in subsistence level, a P700-per-plate merienda made of black angus and shrimp rolls, among others, is lavishly alienating and of course, insulting,” PM chairman Renato Magtubo said, adding that some Filipinos use that budget for a week’s survival.

The Malacañang, for their part, defended that they have actually lowered this year’s budget to P2.2 million as compared to last year’s P2.3 million while still trying to keep the event’s historical importance.

“We tightened some expenses but we don’t want to compromise the quality of the program, this is the last and we will make it special, just like the other SONAs,” House Secretary General Marilyn Barua-Yap said.