MANILA — Music veteran Jim Paredes, an outspoken critic of the Duterte administration, performed on Monday a new composition about the growing dissent among Filipinos, in time for the President’s 5th State of the Nation Address (SONA).

The former member of the iconic APO Hiking Society appeared in the #SONAgKAISA virtual concert, which offered an “alternative SONA” from Filipinos that streamed at the same time as Duterte’s address.

Paredes’ song, which did not directly mention the President, spoke of changes in attitudes, loss of decency and democracy, and corruption, among others. It then tackled inevitable change, and anger fueling action against abuses from those in power. (See the 3:29:30 mark of the video below.)

Paredes was one of several artists who lent their voice to #SONAgKAISA, which was also held as a physical demonstration at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City.

It raised numerous issues, including the government response to the coronavirus pandemic, the forced shutdown of ABS-CBN, and the anti-terror law.