On July 26, 2010, the recently proclaimed president of the Philippines, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, delivered his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) before the people of the Republic of the Philippines. Meanwhile, outside the gates of the Sandiganbayan, a mass of cultural workers, political organizations, artists, and concerned masses rallied together to conduct their own SONA ng Bayan (SONA of the People) to appeal to the democratic conscience of the new administration and challenge the incumbent president to address the prevalent yet long-ignored issues of the marginalized and the oppressed.

Particularly the artists were frontliners in the call and challenge to the new president for an extensive and vigorous social reform. The SONA ng Bayan was replete with artistic flourishes: the theme of a carnival to symbolize the current state of Philippine politics, the moving effigy of the incumbent president, the music and poetry of artists and cultural workers who lend their voices to the call for widespread social reformation and systemic change.

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