While the nation played SoNA vs Counter-SoNA on Monday, in Paris DFA Undersecretary Esteban Conejos and Ambassador Rora Navarro Tolentino proudly witnessed with UNESCO Director General Koïchiro Matsuura the investiture of the Philippine Madrigal Singers as UNESCO Artists for Peace.

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Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales advised PGMA to just tell the truth. As former President FVR used to sing, “It’s a sin to tell a lie.”

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If politicians must always tell the truth, how do they get elected?

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A Russian folk wisdom says: “Half a loaf is still bread. But half the truth is a lie.”

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Former German Chancellor, when invited as witness at a court hearing, was said to have identified himself: “ I am Helmut Schmidt, the greatest chancellor of Germany since Bismarck.”

The Judge admonished, “Mr. Chancellor, please moderate your words. You are in a court of law.”

Chancellor Schmidt: “Yes, but I am under oath.”

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President Arroyo said she never expressed desire to extend her stay beyond 30 June 2010. When she admitted a ‘”lapse in judgment” during the “Hello Garci” brouhaha, her soul-searching even considered stepping down. But she changed her mind when the crisis abated. So, can a president also change her mind over something she never thought about?

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The jury is not yet out whether the SoNA was a good report card on her governance, a valedictory, or a campaign speech. But there is no denying that a bantam PGMA was heavyweight at counter-punching her critics.

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She held up in her SoNA many role models from different walks of life, including the Filipino super-achiever, Nike poster boy Manny Pacquiao… who was trying for size a seat in Batasan.

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Pity that she could not give a knockout punch to the problems of the country, but must slog through 9 SoNAs.

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A clever ad man coined PGMA’s previous SoNA acronym, “BEAT THE ODDS”… for her 11 targets. The “A” is for “Automated Elections.” If Smartmatic-TIM does not deliver, her 11-letter alphabet soup would be reduced to 10: “BET THE ODDS.”

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Come to think of it, her best-performing GOCC is PAGCOR.

But PGMA used her speech to beat (on the head) the ODDS, or what she calls her oddballs critics.

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The joint session did not morph into a Con-ass. She only addressed a “home crowd” audience in the House of Representatives and was given an unobstructed highway by a boycotting majority of the Senate.

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Her SoNA was interrupted 126 times with applause… an average of one after every three or four sentences. The loudest applause was when she admonished presidential wannabes not to tear each other up but to say what each would do for the country… and not to use “bad words.”

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Huling SoNA was not a last farewell.

She reminded all that after she leaves the Batasan stage she will still continue to be president until 30 June 2010.

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Sen. Ed Angara said that PGMA’s legacy stands on laying the predicate for a peace settlement with NPA and MILF – the sine qua non for national progress – and for putting up the essential infrastructure like highways, Ro-Ro, bridges, etc.

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Opposition will continue to criticize her because they want to change places. They are obstinate that all her roads lead to Matagtag na Republika.

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It did not rain on her parade, but on the demos.

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Cellar dwellers UP Maroons ambushed erstwhile unbeaten and UAAP league-leaders Ateneo Blue Eagles 68-58. The last shall be the first?

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