President Benigno Aquino 3rd delivered his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, and his carefully prepared script of self-congratulations and motherhood statements will undoubtedly be designated as the priority topic for the rest of this week. As realistic assessments of the current status of the nation, these annual administration pep rallies—whether here, where the Filipino love of acronyms turns the President’s constitutionally required report to Congress into a SONA, or in my home country where it is known as the State of the Union address—are not the least a bit helpful. They are little more than fodder for subjective praise or criticism of the current president to be used by his supporters and detractors until the next hot-button issue grabs the media’s and the public’s attention. I suspect most presidents are well aware of this, which is why they remove anything that could be mistaken for circumspection or humility from their prepared texts.