Raphael Reyes/Rappler
The President has no political capital left to spend, no steadfast coalition to spend it with
Contrast the man on the podium with the man four years ago: no longer basking in the sunshine of a resounding mandate, no longer exuding reflected gravitas from his late father and namesake. The camera followed the President as he made his long ceremonial walk to the plenary hall looking tired, a man lost in thought. He did not project confidence. He took the podium and looked at the assembled legislators and guests with the face of someone attending his own wake.
The President went straight to the subject that has swallowed his presidency whole: flood control corruption. We have done everything to pinpoint where it started, he declared, and what needed to be done, however painful, needed to be done. He then announced that the Ombudsman is set to file cases against the former speaker, his cousin Martin Romualdez, whom he oddly did not mention by name. At one point the President’s voice seemed to break. The plenary was silent. The applause, when it came, was thin.
It was only when the President said “Hindi ako Pangulo ng aking pamilya, hindi ako Pangulo ng aking kaibigan. Ako ay Pangulo ng Pilipinas, ng mga kapwa Pilipino,” — a faint echo of a disgraced former president’s inaugural speech, a pledge that history has proven to be honored in the breach — that the plenary applauded. (Check Rappler’s full coverage of the President’s 2026 State of the Nation Address here.)
