"War on terror" is a curative: Recontextualization and political myth-making in gloria macapagal-arroyo's 2002-2004 state of the nation addresses

Abstract

The article examines the State of the Nation addresses (SONA) delivered by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (2001-2010) from 2002-2004, during which time she actively invoked the need to engage in the U.S. government-led "global war on terror." It specifically investigates how these presidential speeches recontextualized the war on terror discourse and how this recontextualization worked to legitimize her perennially challenged presidency. Using an analytical framework that draws concepts from conceptual metaphor theory, critical discourse studies, and rhetorical studies, the author argues that the metaphor of war on terror as a curative to the national "ills" had been strategically used in Arroyo's State of the Nation addresses. Through the national addresses, the Arroyo administration was able to work towards sustaining its hold of power on the one hand and showing its commitment to the Bush administration-led global war on terror on the other. © 2011 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.