*PBBM’S FIRST SONA: President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. delivers his first State of the Nation Adress at the plenary hall of the House of Representatives in Quezon City on July 25, 2022. Behind him are Senate President Migs Zubiri and House Speaker Martin Romualdez. (Noel B. Pabalate)*
A year ago, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) declared key undertakings to set the tone of his administration. Transforming the economy took a huge part of President Marcos’ speech last year, touching on tax reforms that will increase revenue collection while expenditure will be realigned for efficient spending. He said the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 will be crafted to set the country's roadmap for economic recovery in a post-pandemic era. In January this year, Marcos signed Executive Order (EO) No. 14, approving the Philippine Development Plan. It is intended to "bring back the country to a high-growth trajectory" and "enable economic and social transformation for a prosperous, inclusive, and resilient society." While he has asked the Department of Finance (DOF) to continue looking into the current tax system and find ways to level the playing field between foreign and local businesses, the tax reform he cited in his first SONA was addressed after his approval of the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2023-2028. It will serve as his administration's blueprint to increase exports of food and services in the next five years.

Marcos remains as Agriculture chief

The President took over the agriculture portfolio when he assumed the presidency as he believed that there were crucial reforms that only the President could handle. He became the secretary when prices of basic commodities were rising, and while supply of agricultural products, such as rice and sugar, was dwindling. The President has said that he will remain as Agriculture chief until necessary reforms are implemented in the agency. In his first SONA, the Chief Executive bared his intention to exert all efforts to increase food production by prioritizing the modernization of agriculture production. A year later, he visited several provinces in the country to establish "Kadiwa ng Pangulo" where producers can directly sell their agricultural produce at a lower price, eliminating costs incurred by middlemen. During his visits, the Department of Agriculture (DA) also turned over equipment to farmers to help modernize their operations and cut production cost.

'We are disengaging from the ICC'

Marcos inherited a drug-related problem from his predecessor, former president Rodrigo Duterte, in the form of a request for investigation from the International Criminal Court (ICC). In March, the ICC rejected the Philippines' appeal to suspend the probe on the deadly drug war. "We don't have a next move. That is the extent of our involvement with the ICC. That ends all our involvement with the ICC. The appeal has failed and in our view, there is nothing more that we can do. So at this point, we, essentially, are disengaging from any contact, from any communication, with the ICC," he said. Marcos considers the ICC probe as an "intrusion into our internal matters and they are a threat to our sovereignty." The President also maintained his earliest pronouncement that his way of dealing with the country's drug war would be different from Duterte’s way of handling it. His past statements show that he is keen on focusing on rehabilitation rather than a bloody drug war.

No more lockdowns

Marcos had declared in his first SONA that "we will no longer implement a lockdown."  Although there was yet no official declaration ending the public health emergency then, Marcos said the country is headed in the direction of lifting restrictions. In his first SONA, the President vowed to put up more specialty hospitals in the country, including the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and a vaccine institute. This month, he led the inspection of the site for the future Clark Multi-Specialty Medical Center (CMSMC), which is envisioned to be a world-class medical facility with state-of-the-art equipment that will provide specialized care in four medical disciplines: pediatric, renal, cardiovascular and oncology. Its construction was expected to start this July.

‘Friend-to-all’ policy

Marcos stressed in his first public address that the Philippines will not lose even an inch of its territory under his watch but will maintain the "friend to all, enemy to none" foreign policy while prioritizing national interest. In the past year, several sea incidents in the West Philippine Sea involving Chinese vessels occurred, leading to the country's filing of 30 diplomatic protests against China. Yet, Marcos said the country is not shifting away from China. "Some people have said that the Philippines had shifted its policy away from the People's Republic (of China) and to other powers, that is certainly not true," the President said last month. While he was in the United States and in Belgium last year, he said that the Philippines would not want to be in the middle of any tensions between its two long-time allies—China and the US. "And we, the Philippines, for our part, has taken an independent policy and we absolutely refuse to go back to the situation of the Cold War where we have to pick sides in terms of the superpower we were aligned with," he stressed.

Build Better More

Marcos is also committed to finishing the ongoing infrastructure projects started by his predecessor, and to build more. From Duterte's "Build, Build, Build," Marcos' infrastructure slogan is—“Build, Better, More.” In order to fulfill this, infrastructure development funding is among the key sectors included in the newly-signed law establishing the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF). With the signing of the controversial measure, the country now has a fund "which will itself make money" to increase the government's capacity and capability to invest in all "extremely important projects" such as investments in agriculture, infrastructure, digitalization, strengthening of supply chains, and all of those necessary elements in the post-pandemic economy. He noted that the MIF is a "crucial undertaking" that will support the implementation of the 194 NEDA-approved infrastructure projects.

Freeing farmers from debt

In his first SONA, Marcos encouraged the Congress to pass a law that will emancipate the agrarian reform beneficiaries from the agrarian reform debt burden. He said that the loans of agrarian reform beneficiaries with unpaid amortization and interest shall be condoned while agrarian reform beneficiaries, who are still to receive their awarded land under the comprehensive agrarian reform program, shall receive it without any obligation to pay any amortization. On July 7, Marcos signed Republic Act (RA) No. 11953 or the New Agrarian Emancipation Act, freeing agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) from their debt burden. The new law condones all the unpaid amortizations of the principal debt, including any interest and surcharges incurred by the ARBs. A total of ₱57.56 billion of unpaid principal debt will be condoned to benefit 610,054 ARBs tilling 1.173 million hectares of land. In addition, the government will assume the obligation of 10,201 ARBs tilling 11,531.24 hectares of land to pay the remaining balance of the direct compensation due the concerned landowners under the Voluntary Land Transfer (VLT) or the Direct Payment Scheme (DPS) amounting to ₱206,204,776.41.