[OPINION] SONA 2025: Long on numbers, short on context and vision
The 2025 SONA sits right smack in the middle of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos' six-year term. There’s a lot riding on it. There’s also been a lot going on in the past year—in politics and elsewhere—to make it a potentially revelatory, even seismic shift-inducing.
Before we dive in, let’s do a rewind. Remember last year’s Typhoon Carina? It slammed Northern Luzon in July, triggering massive flooding everywhere that led to at least 39 deaths and caused infra damage amounting to over P4 billion. Exact date: July 24, two days after the 2024 SONA in which the President reported that the administration finished more than 5,500 flood control projects all over the country and that many more were underway. He also noted the launch, in January 2024, of a program called Kalinisan sa Bagong Pilipinas that was able to collect more than 4,000 tons of garbage from all barangays in Metro Manila in five months.
“Ang pinakamahalaga, ang buong bansa ay matibay at laging handa sa nakakapinsalang mga sakuna,” he beamed.
Social media was quick to chime in. News feeds were flooded with videos of flooding set against audio clips from the SONA about the flood control projects. It was as though nature made its own unsolicited but very welcome fact check.
Carina wasn’t the only calamity that hit the country within the past year, and alongside a string of typhoons came at least five major political storms: the impeachment proceedings in Congress against Vice President Sara Duterte; the ICC arrest of her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte for a crimes against humanity case; the case of the so-called “missing sabungeros”; the online gambling issue; and, the administration's controversial transfer of P60 billion PhilHealth funds to the national treasury.
As serendipity would have it, nature and politics would converge in the week before this year’s SONA: the duo of typhoons Emong and Dante wreaking havoc together with the habagat, also in Northern Luzon, turning many areas into deep waterworlds yet again, this time for days; and the decision of the Supreme Court declaring the impeachment complaint against the VP as unconstitutional, which sent shock waves to all stakeholders in the issue, including ordinary citizens. And there was the minor side show involving the “boxing match” between Davao City acting mayor Baste Duterte and PNP chief Gen. Nicolas Torre III.
Going into a SONA has not been this, for lack of a better term, exciting since perhaps former president Duterte’s first. Would BBM go for a spin on what he said last year about his administration’s disaster preparedness accomplishments? Would he comment on the divisive SC move? Would he call for justice for the missing sabungeros? Would he say anything about online gambling? Would he throw a punchline about the charity sporting event that was but also never was?
He did.
He did not.
He did.
He did not.
He did.
But near the end, he had a show of force. “Mahiya naman kayo sa inyong kapwa Pilipino!” he said, referring to errant government officials who allegedly pocketed money from flood control projects, after admitting that many initiatives may have failed or disintegrated while some may have been totally fabricated. For this he received "BBM!" chants, cheers, and a standing ovation from the crowd of lawmakers and guests inside the Batasang Pambansa.
In response, he directed all agencies involved to make an audit and publish a list of all projects so the public can scrutinize them. He delivered this bit with a mix of firmness and pride, apparently well-pleased at how this idea sounds so radical. It is not. During her presidential campaign in 2022, former Vice President Leni Robredo anchored her platform for transparency, accessibility and accountability on the promise to mandate all government agencies to make all documents relating to all government projects automatically available online from day one. BBM is at least three years too late.
Aside from this, he vowed to file cases against these corrupt and errant officials. As for actual disaster response, he basically said the government will just continue doing the same things like continuous improvement of systems and building more proper evacuation centers that aren’t existing schools.
He asked the people to do their part. To be disciplined in waste management, to cooperate with the government, to make sacrifices and to activate the bayanihan spirit every time the situation calls for it.
In short, nothing really new. He just regurgitated his statements from last week about how what we’ve been having the past few years is the “new normal” brought on by climate change and we just have to keep doing what we’ve been doing.
This is basically the gist of this SONA: The administration has been doing great these past three years, so it will just do more of the same. Giving capital to small entrepreneurs, building Kadiwa centers selling P20/kg rice, giving land titles to farmers, providing electricity to households, building classrooms and daycare centers, giving gadgets to teachers, creating more parks, providing PhilHealth coverage, giving discounts for transportation to seniors, PWDs, students, and families, and so forth.
The speech quickly sounded like a bullet point report of the Marcos administration’s greatest operational hits. And the President appropriately delivered it in rapid-fire motion, bombarding the audience with facts and figures, apparently in an attempt to make it all seem both grounded and grand. But without much context, policy directions, and vision to frame things, this SONA was more Statistics of the Nation Accounting that could’ve been sent as a report via email and much less honest-to-goodness substantial, presidential State of the Nation Address.
Let's see if mother nature has anything to say about it in the days to come.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of PhilSTAR L!fe, its parent company and affiliates, or its staff.
