PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) was perhaps his most politically calculated speech yet — but also his most detached from the lived realities of ordinary Filipinos.
Listening to the President, one would think he was describing a different country. His narrative painted a Philippines where corruption is being defeated, the economy is steadily improving, and public services are expanding. Yet outside the halls of Batasang Pambansa, millions continue to suffer from soaring fuel prices, expensive electricity, inadequate wages, insecure jobs, landlessness, worsening poverty, and shrinking democratic space. This was, in every sense, a “LUTANG NA SONA.”
The President boasted of recovering P25 billion from anomalous flood control projects. But recovering barely 2.5 percent of the estimated Php1 trillion flood control theft is hardly a victory against corruption. Accountability cannot stop with a handful of contractors while those who enabled, benefited from, and presided over this massive plunder continue to evade genuine accountability: this includes President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who bears ultimate responsibility for the corruption that flourished under his administration.
On the fuel crisis triggered by the US-Israeli military aggression in the Middle East (West Asia), President Marcos portrayed his administration’s response as swift and decisive. In reality, while fuel prices surged to as high as P150 to P160 per liter in some areas and motorists were hit by successive price increases of around P10 and another Php7 per liter within days, the administration refused to suspend fuel excise taxes despite repeated calls from consumers, transport groups, and people’s organizations. The suspension of excise taxes covered only kerosene and a few petroleum products, leaving untouched the taxes on diesel and gasoline imposed by the TRAIN Law. Marcos Jr. has allowed the oil cartel to continue reaping enormous profits and patted big oil companies on the back for their “cooperation”.
Throughout the speech, the President repeatedly cited subsidies, emergency employment, and financial assistance as proof that the government is responsive to the people’s needs. While any assistance is welcome, these remain temporary, inadequate, and highly selective. They cannot substitute for progressive tax measures, living wages, secure employment, and accessible public services. They are far from the longstanding demands for genuine agrarian reform and national industrialization that address the root causes of poverty and inequality.
The President’s proposal to amend the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) and remove system loss charges was one of the most applauded portions of his speech. Yet this has long been demanded by BAYAN, consumer groups, and power advocates. The deeper problem remains the privatization of the power industry itself through EPIRA, where electricity generation, transmission, and distribution remain controlled by a handful of oligarchs. Even the administration’s aggressive promotion of renewable energy fails to address this fundamental issue, as these projects are largely cornered by private hands while communities continue to bear their environmental and social costs. For instance, the unjust transition to renewable energy paved the way for destructive mining of critical ores and land-grabbing of agricultural and ancestral lands for “solar farms”.
The fifth SONA also exposed where this administration’s priorities ultimately lie. Significant portions of the SONA promoting artificial intelligence, the industrial hub under Pax Silica, foreign investment flows, and strategic partnerships with the United States shifted into the English language, underscoring the reliance of the Marcos Jr. regime on its neocolonial patron. The sham promise of jobs and industrial development follows the same backward model that has kept the Philippines dependent on foreign capital, imported technology, and the sale of cheap labor while opening more of the country’s land and natural resources to foreign corporate plunder.
Equally revealing was what the President chose not to discuss. There was no mention of human rights violations, red-tagging and political prisoners, nor of contractualization and the demand for a living wage. Ironically, while the President spoke of peace and unity, his police arrested around 50 individuals for participating in SONA demonstrations in Metro Manila and calling out the greed of electric distribution company Meralco.
The true State of the Nation cannot be measured by carefully selected statistics or investment pledges. It is measured by whether workers receive living wages, farmers own the land they till, consumers can afford electricity and fuel, communities enjoy genuine democratic freedoms, and development serves the Filipino people rather than political elites and foreign interests. Judged by these standards, Marcos Jr.’s fifth SONA offered more public relations than accountability, more fantastical promises than structural change, and more cover-ups of the harsh realities confronting the Filipino people./PN
