PAGBABAGO
On Monday, the nation will be listening to President Marcos Jr.’s second State of the Nation address. As the country is undergoing several challenges in several fronts, the people are anxiously awaiting what he would promise in the months ahead.
Like most leaders in the past, I am sure he would be basing his priorities on what his economic and political advisers and the surveys say and what he himself had been promising over the past two years.
And from what surveys had shown, most of the priorities are economic – poverty reduction, control of inflation, increased pay of workers, and most important – fighting corruption which is perceived as the most important cause of poverty.
Although not a top priority in the surveys, it is a priority among middle-class Filipinos who think that education is a primary cause of many of our current economic problems. Among the ASEAN nations, our country’s expenditure in education has always been one of the lowest. This, as we know, has been the primary reason for our dismal performance in the area. We hope the President will take the EDCOM II report seriously and give its recommendations one of his priorities. This, in addition to addressing hunger and its consequences – stunting among a large percentage of young children which had resulted in poor school performance.
Agriculture is a sector that he himself considers a priority. Poor nutrition among our children is a consequence of the country’s underperformance in this critical sector. I hope he would attend to the upgrading of the productivity of our farm workers through innovations such as farm schools, a model that had worked successfully in several European countries, We also have had successful experiments in this area sometime ago in several provinces.
Too, we need to focus on strengthening community organizations, enterprises and networks that have strengthened people’s participation in governance such as cooperatives and social enterprises like micro-credit. This would support your concept of involving partnership of government with non-government organizations and would strengthen the goal of people empowerment.
Training of social entrepreneurs, farmers, fisherfolk could be an important assistance to the package in upgrading our agricultural and fisheries sector as well as social enterprises.
Although not considered as a critical priority in the surveys, I hope the President would give the defense of the integrity of Philippine territory at this time. Over the past few weeks, we have watched how tensions had escalated in the Ayungin Shoal at the West Philippine Sea. We support the peaceful resolution of conflict but we should ensure that we take the necessary steps in the protection of our people and resources.
We support the findings of surveys regarding giving low priority to Charter change. As most surveys had shown, only a small percentage of respondents regard it as important at this time.
We need to fight terrorism Mr. President. But we don’t need the Anti-Terrorism law to guide us in this area as it had violated several valued freedoms – freedom of movement, freedom of expression, and human dignity. We value the creation of an environment of peace, self-reliance, entrepreneurship and a culture that is resilient and open to change in a global environment that is undergoing rapid developments in the digital, political, social, and environmental realms. ([email protected])