“The president also took note of the increase in household consumption as the country continues to reopen, along with robust manufacturing capacity, improved vaccination rate and upward trend in tourism.”
President Marcos Jr. opened his State of the Nation Address as the 17th President of the Republic of the Philippines by laying down the solutions, plans, and strategy of his administration to improve and rehabilitate a scarred economy.
On the economy, his administration plans to implement sound fiscal management, tax administration reforms to increase revenue collection, spending efficiency improved, promotion of productivity enhancing investments, to adjust the tax system in order to catch up with the rapid development of digital economy including the imposition of value added tax on digital service providers, streamline processes in the Bureau of Customs.
The medium-term fiscal management strategy will be geared towards the attainment of short term macro fiscal stability and medium-term fiscal sustainability, mobilizing government resources for optimal utilization in order to gain maximum benefits.
The government shall adopt policies for sustained GDP growth and to reduce poverty to single digit by the end of his 6-year term.
There is an elevated uncertainty due to the impact of the pandemic that pose macro-economic challenges and accelerated inflation due mainly to international increases in prices of oil and other key commodities.
Accordingly, the president said he ordered NEDA to revise its macro economic assumptions to incorporate these challenges, leading to upward adjustments in the following—inflation rate for 2022-2023, foreign exchange rate for 2023-2025, and goods and services for 2022.
The president also took note of the increase in household consumption as the country continues to reopen, along with robust manufacturing capacity, improved vaccination rate and upward trend in tourism.
He projected a steady increase in import and export during his term. This part of the speech was addressed to investors and the business and finance community, including our creditors.
Agriculture will be main driver of economic growth.
Short term challenges will include continued increase in prices of food and shortage in supply.
To address these problems, the agricultural sector must increase productivity during the planting season thru financial and technical assistance.
The administration will also make farm inputs more accessible and affordable.
For the long term solution, prices of agricultural goods and services will be increased by strengthening value chain from farmers to consumers.
The Department of Agriculture shall focus on exploring new methods of planting and animal raising.
The government shall prioritize modernization of agriculture, establish a national network of farm to market roads, adopt measures to ease prices of commodities.
According to the president, agrarian reform will continue.
Accordingly, he shall issue an executive order to impose a one-year moratorium on the payment of land amortization and interest payments. This will be popular among agrarian reform beneficiaries.
On health, the Marcos administration will no longer impose lockdowns, to undertake better vaccine roll out and will ensure adequate hospital bed capacity.
It will adjust health protocols in accordance with a given situation, to improve information dissemination, establish Center for Disease Control and Prevention and create a vaccine institute and more health centers and hospitals in all regions.
The Marcos presidency will bring medical services to the people, thus making health care more accessible.
As stated by the president, one of the cornerstones of a strong healthcare system is the provision of competent and efficient medical professionals
His administration will exert all efforts to improve the welfare of doctors, nurses, and other medical frontliners.
The government will engage and negotiate with international and domestic pharmaceutical companies to open up the market to lower down prices of drugs.
This was the most applauded part of the speech with the audience giving him a standing ovation when he promised specialty hospitals for every region.
On foreign policy, the President said the country will preserve its territorial integrity, will adopt an independent foreign policy but shall continue to be a friend to all. And an enemy to none. When he promised not to give up an inch of national territory, the audience again gave him a standing ovation.
In the right way to end a SONA, the president, addressing the members of Congress, enumerated the priority legislative measures of his administration to include: National Government Rightsizing Program, Budget Modernization Bill, Tax Package 3: Valuation Reform Bill, Tax Package 4: Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act, E-Government Act, Internet Transaction Act or E-Commerce Law, Government Financial Institutions Unified Initiatives to Distressed Enterprises for Economic Recovery, Medical Reserve Corps, National Disease Prevention Management Authority Creation of the Virology Institute of the Philippines, Department of Water Resources. Unified System of Separation, Retirement and Pension E-Governance Act. National Land Use Act, National Defense Act. Mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and National Service Training Program, Enactment of an Enabling Law for the Natural Gas Industry Amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or EPIRA (Rep. Act 9136), qnd Amendments to the Build-Operate-Transfer Law.
My overall assessment: what a world of difference from Duterte’s six SONAs is this first Marcos SONA.
Marcos’ speech was comprehensive on the issues he covered but there were also big gaps: human rights, corruption, the war against drugs, the needs of the basic sectors, insurgency and terrorism, peace in Mindanao, and the peace process with the communists.
Clearly these are not in his radar screen and does not consider them important. But he started on time, stuck to a script, did not curse at anyone, had a clear narrative, and ended with a list of legislative priorities.
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