Whoever advised the President to include a paragraph in his State of the Nation Address (SoNA) about a space program and rocket launch pad in Cagayan must have been stoned out of his mind (figuratively speaking, of course).

Aside from sounding incongruous in a speech where a majority of Filipinos polled said that what they wanted most to hear was how the government would be dealing with the massive, trillion-peso corruption (with addressing the worsening economy a close second), an astute speechwriter would have known that such a statement — albeit brief — would, under the present situation, launch a thousand and one memes and jokes.

For one, musically inclined Filipinos (of which there are legion) could not help but make fun of the pronouncement in light of the lyrics of Elton John’s song “Rocket Man.”

“She packed my bags last night, pre-flight; zero hour, 9 a.m. And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then; I miss the earth so much, I miss my wife.”

Now, in view of the accusations against the President regarding his alleged drug use, frequent travels and his wife allegedly meddling in government affairs, lyrics such as “high as a kite,” “packed my bags last night,” and “I miss my wife” aren’t things you would want the people to become familiar with.

Second, when inflation is up together with gas prices, the peso is way down to record depths, and public debt is up to a record high, the Filipino will definitely not look too fondly upon another expensive endeavor that is of absolutely no practical use to him.

Still fresh in the minds of average citizens are the billions diverted from health care, public insurance and flagship infrastructure to fund unprogrammed allocations (read: Floodgate) and the Maharlika Fund. Yes, that embarrassingly pathetic sovereign fund that looks like a “booger” compared to those of other countries. Nothing much came out of both, and nothing ever will.

And then there came the memes and jokes about launching corrupt officials into outer space, to Mars or some other planet to spare the country of their corruption. Even I, in my daily show, couldn’t resist appealing to Mr. Marcos Jr: “Mr. President, please pack all your House allies into a spacecraft and send them up Uranus.”

But most telling is that “rocket” sounds a lot like “racket,” which is a colloquialism for getting rich on ill-gotten wealth. It cannot but bring back into focus all the billions allegedly plundered by Marcos’ henchmen from public funds and into their own pockets.

Not that the coming rains will serve as a less powerful reminder of all those hundreds of billions that never went into flood control but straight into mansions both here and abroad, designer couture and secret bank accounts.

In the end, the piteous space program that we have — grossly underfunded and way behind those of our ASEAN neighbors — cannot but sound like another excuse for certain favored individuals to make more illicit bucks, much like the discredited Maharlika Fund.

Announcing it made the President look desperate, weak and downright ridiculous. A veritable racket man. Whoever thought of that should be made the fuel for the next booster stage of a rocket. Because it will take time for the President to live down that stupid thing.

To quote Elton John, “...and I think it’s gonna be a long, long time…”