President Noynoy Aquino's First State of the Nation Address

I hate it when people state the obvious.

Now, given the amount of airtime and newspaper space usually given to the State of the Nation Address of Presidents past, I am pretty sure I don't think I will be able to escape President Noynoy Aquino's Statement on the Obvious National Address.

Like the launch of a premiere teledrama, ABS-CBN has been hyping up President Noynoy's coming SONA and yesterday was a special treat on the Philippine Daily Inquirer as it bannered that the SONA will be beyond "SHOCK AND AWE" -- which I think was penned without the usual journalistic restraint that the Manila Bulletin is known for.

Days ago, just before his inaugural, a couple of friends were saying that President Noynoy's handlers were lowering expectations with phrases like "he's not superman" and other phrases to that effect.  Now, after 26 days, I think we are going to be treated to another whole level of 'lowering expectations".

In the art of managing expectations, the first step is usually to muddle whatever promises that were made -- this is usually made easier by making the promises VAGUE and AMBIGUOUS as well as making sure that printed copies of those promises are made unavailable from official websites.

President Aquino's promises are contained in his platform.  It was originally seen on his official campaign website but now this website has been taken down and replaced with a "place holder" page.

Another step in "lowering expectations", as briefly highlighted earlier, is to come up with a lower estimation of one's abilities.  Where previously one was saying that he could lead the country, one would now say that leading the country and solving its problems would not be possible without the PEOPLE'S SUPPORT.

Asking for the PEOPLES' SUPPORT is actually helpful and only right, but ONLY IF YOU'VE ALREADY LAID THE GROUNDWORK FOR TAPPING AND MANAGING THAT SUPPORT.

Yet another step is to blow up the proportion of the problems while shrinking down the resources needed to solve them.

In any case, however the SONA goes today, I'll concentrate on whether President Noynoy Aquino makes mention of any solutions to the problems he'll encounter.

Here are a few that he has run right smack into within the first 26 days of his administration.

1. Empty coffers.

2. Corruption.

3. Power shortage.

4. Water shortage.

5. An impending food shortage.

6. Climate change.

7. Disaster preparedness.

8. Traffic.

Here are the perennial problems encountered and unsolved by all previous administrations.

1. Corruption.

2. Declining quality of education.

3. Poor disaster planning and preparation.

4. Weakening agricultural production.

5. Smuggling.

6. Drugs.

7. Continued insurgency and separatist movements.

8. Rampant criminality.

9. Lack of investment in infrastructure.

10. Heavy dependence on OFW remittances.