House Minority Leader and 4Ps Party-list Rep. Marcelino Libanan

House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan said Sunday, July 23 that the projected severe El Niño episode might derail the Philippines' current economic upswing.

As such, Libanan asked the government ahead of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s  second State of the Nation Address (SONA) to go all-out with its El Niño interventions.

“Government should spare no effort in mitigating El Niño’s adverse impact on irrigation water supply and farm harvests, which could put an unwanted upward pressure on food prices,” said Libanan, who represents 4Ps Party-list in Philippine Congress.

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is set to deliver on Monday, July 24 his second SONA where he is expected to report on the country’s situation, the government’s agenda for the next 12 months, and recommend to Congress certain legislative measures.

"Right now, investments and employment are on the rise, consumption spending is on the upswing, public and private construction are revving up, and even foreign tourists are coming back in droves,” Libanan said.

“It would seem that the President’s overseas promotional trips in his first year in office, particularly to Japan, Singapore and the United States, are starting to bear fruit in generating new investments,”he noted.

The Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to grow at 6.0 percent this year – the highest in Southeast Asia, with Vietnam seen expanding by 5.8 percent, Indonesia by 4.8 percent, Malaysia by 4.7 percent, Thailand by 3.5 percent and Singapore by 1.5 percent, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said in an outlook released on July 19.

The country’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.3 percent in May this year from 6.0 percent in May 2022 and 4.5 percent in April 2023, based on the Labor Force Survey results released by the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA) on July 7.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), in a July 4 bulletin, said: “El Niño is present in the tropical Pacific and will persist until the first quarter of 2024, showing signs of strengthening in the coming months.”

“El Niño increases the likelihood of below-normal rainfall conditions, which could bring negative impacts (such as dry spells and droughts) in some areas of the country,” the state weather bureau warned.

When the Philippines last endured a full-blown El Niño event in 2019, vast parts of the country, including Metro Manila, reeled from a drought that caused widespread water shortages and farm losses, after dams and lakes that supply potable and irrigation water experienced a massive decline in rainfall.