Political Discourse in Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s 2022 and 2025 State of the Nation Addresses
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.69569/jip.2026.432Keywords:
Illocutionary acts, Discourse strategy, Ideology, SONA, PBBMAbstract
Political discourse plays a significant role in shaping how leaders communicate national issues, policies, and governance. However, limited research has examined how speech acts and ideological strategies interact across different points in a presidential administration. This study examines how President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. strategically uses political discourse in his first (2022) and fourth (2025) State of the Nation Addresses (SONAs) to construct ideology and shape public perception. Guided by Speech Act Theory and van Dijk’s Critical Discourse Analysis, particularly the Ideological Square, the study analyzes how illocutionary acts and discourse strategies reinforce leadership legitimacy and governance narratives. Using qualitative content analysis, the official transcripts of the 2022 and 2025 SONAs served as the primary corpus. Findings reveal that assertive speech acts dominate both speeches, emphasizing credibility, authority, and solution-oriented governance. The study also identifies an ideological shift from crisis-responsive and state-centered governance in 2022 toward a more development-oriented and economic-centered discourse in 2025. Through positive self-presentation, minimization of institutional weaknesses, and emphasis on reform and modernization, the speeches construct the administration as capable and responsive to national concerns. Overall, the study highlights how political language functions as a persuasive and ideological tool that shapes public understanding of governance and national development.
Downloads
References
Agagon, M., Nodalo, J., Suarez, A.P.A., & Naparan, G. (2024). Illocutionary speech acts used by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. during the 2022 and 2023 State of the Nation Address. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4835439
Aini, Q., Hidayat, D.N., Husna, N., & Alek, A. (2023). Discourse analysis of directive speech acts used by teachers in classroom interactions. Journal of English Teaching, 9(2), 137–150. https://doi.org/10.33541/jet.v9i2.4566
Al-Radhi, H. (2020). Strategic functions in CNN’s media discourse an ideological strategy to win people’s support a critical discourse analysis study. International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 9(3), 43. https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijalel.v.9n.3p.43
Alyaqoub, R., Alsharairi, A., & Aslam, M.Z. (2024). Elaboration of underpinning methods and data analysis process of directed qualitative content analysis for communication studies. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 108–116. https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v24i2.573
Antonakis, J., d’Adda, G., Weber, R., & Zehnder, C. (2021). “Just Words? Just Speeches?” On the economic value of charismatic leadership. Management Science, 68(9). https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2021.4219
Aperocho, M.D., Flores, S., Gabisan, J., & Ygay, N.J. (2023). A critical discourse analysis of former Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte’s State of the City Addresses (SOCAs). International Journal of Multidisciplinary: Applied Business and Education Research, 4(8), 2718–2734. https://doi.org/10.11594/ijmaber.04.08.13
Calonge, L., & Talili, I. (2016). Rhetorical discourse analysis of State of the Nation Address of select Philippine presidents. JPAIR Multidisciplinary Research, 25(1), 107–117. https://doi.org/10.7719/jpair.v25i1.393
Capano, G., Galanti, M.T., & Barbato, G. (2023). When the political leader is the narrator: The political and policy dimensions of narratives. Policy Sciences, 56(2), 233–265. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11077-023-09505-6
Chepurnaya, A. (2021). Modeling public perception in times of crisis: Discursive strategies in Trump’s COVID-19 discourse. Critical Discourse Studies, 20(1), 70–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405904.2021.1990780
Creswell, J.W., & Creswell, J.D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. SAGE Publications, Inc. https://lccn.loc.gov/2017044644
Devi, M.F., & Degaf, A. (2021). An analysis of commisive speech act used by the main character of “Knives Out.” Paradigm Journal of Language and Literary Studies, 4(1), 43–52. https://doi.org/10.18860/prdg.v4i1.10932
Duran, E.L.L. (2023). An analysis of linguistic features in the speeches of President Duterte on controversial issues. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 28(3), 39–47.
Dylgjeri, A. (2017). Analysis of speech acts in political speeches. European Journal of Social Sciences Studies, 0(0).
Graneheim, U., Lindgren, B., & Lundman, B. (2017). Methodological challenges in qualitative content analysis: A discussion paper. Nurse Education Today, 56, 29–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2017.06.002
Hager, A., & Hilbig, H. (2020). Does public opinion affect Political Speech? American Journal of Political Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12516
Khoif, M.A., & Rokhman, F. (2025). Representation of expressive speech acts in the WebSeries 17 Selamanya: A case study in pragmatic analysis. Humanities & Language International Journal of Linguistics Humanities and Education, 2(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.32734/gcmnfg48
Lapka, O. (2021). Language of persuasion: Analysis of conceptual metaphors in political discourse. The Grove - Working Papers on English Studies, 28, 85 110. https://revistaselectronicas.ujaen.es/index.php/grove/article/view/6607
Marsili, N., & Green, M. (2021). Assertion: A (partly) social speech act. Journal of Pragmatics, 181, 17–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.03.016
Meha, D., & Heryono, H. (2025). Expressive speech act in the film ‘The Shawshank Redemption’: A pragmatic study. English Journal Literacy Utama. https://doi.org/10.33197/ejlutama.v9i1.280.
Meyenburg, I. (2022). “Brexit means Brexit!”: Investigating the production of social phenomena in political discourses. Symbolic Interaction, 45(4), 570–595. https://doi.org/10.1002/symb.615
Mohammed, A.J. (2023). Commissive speech act in Joe Biden’s selected speech. Journal of Tikrit University for Humanities, 30(12, 2), 185–194. https://doi.org/10.25130/jtuh.30.12.2.2023.19
Murillo, M.A., & Yeh, A. (2021). The failed rhetoric: Presupposition analysis on Duterte’s 5th State of the Nation address. International Journal of Language and Literary Studies, 3(2), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.36892/ijlls.v3i2.587
Nabila, Z., Mujiyanto, J., & Rukmini, D. (2020). The comparison of commisive speech acts by Trump and Warren presidential candidate viewed from gender differences. English Education Journal, 11(1), 114–122. https://doi.org/10.15294/eej.v11i1.41899
Paz, R.M. (2024). Philippine English in the political speeches of President Rodrigo Duterte. World Englishes, 43(4), 624–635. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12670
Prabhakaran, V., Rei, M., & Shutova, E. (2021). How metaphors impact political discourse: A large-scale topic-agnostic study using neural metaphor detection. Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, 15, 503–512. https://doi.org/10.1609/icwsm.v15i1.18079
Roslyng, M.M., & Dindler, C. (2022). Media power and politics in framing and discourse theory. Communication Theory, 33(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtac012
Royanti, R. (2019). Expressive speech act as found on La La Land movie. Inovish Journal, 4(2), 131. https://doi.org/10.35314/inovish.v4i2.1162
Searle, J. (1969). Speech acts: An essay in the philosophy of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139173438
Signey, R.M.L. (2023). Ideology and political discourse: A critical discourse analysis of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s 2022 State of the Nation Address [Quasi-paper]. Pangasinan State University–Urdaneta City Campus.
Sikanku, G.E. (2022). Presidential discourse, the public and recurring themes: A political communication analysis of the 2019 State of the Nation Address in Ghana. Communication and the Public, 7(4), 176–187. https://doi.org/10.1177/20570473221129652
Squires, A. (2009). Methodological challenges in cross-language qualitative research: A research review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 46(2), 277–287. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2008.08.006
Sun, Y., Kalinin, O.I., & Ignatenko, A.V. (2021). The use of metaphor power indices for the analysis of speech impact in political public speeches. Russian Journal of Linguistics, 25(1), 250–277. https://doi.org/10.22363/2687-0088-2021-25-1-250-277
Temple, B., & Young, A. (2004). Qualitative research and translation dilemmas. Qualitative Research, 4(2), 161–178. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794104044430
van Dijk, T. (1997). Discourse as structure and process: Discourse studies: A multidisciplinary introduction. SAGE Publications Ltd. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446221884
Yang, Y. (2023). Ideology in critical discourse atudy: A review of literature. Journal of the University of Ruhuna, 11(2), 53–63. https://doi.org/10.4038/jur.v11i2.8012
Yusanti, G., Ningrum, A.S.B., Aini, N., & Al Aziz, E.N. (2022). Speech act analysis on Joe Biden’s speech about COVID-19. JURNAL ARBITRER, 9(1), 57. https://doi.org/10.25077/ar.9.1.57-70.2022
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
JIP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Under the Open Access Policy, appropriate attribution can be provided by simply citing the original article.
