Besides his State of the Nation Address (SONA), the President’s report on his accomplishments, there’s one other list, which we may describe as “Sana,” our “wish” word in the vernacular, as in “maybe” or “hopefully.”

Among his successes and soon-to-be projects, PBBM listed improved agricultural production; 2.5 million households electrified; 2,000 plants and factories coming up; clean water and electricity restored for residents of Siquijor; 40,000 new classrooms; a budget for daycare centers and vaccines nationwide; laptops for teachers, arriving soon; ₱60 billion worth of scholarships for TESDA enrollees; 6,000 households included in the “walang gutom” project; a doctor in every barrio; free rides with the return of Love Bus ; opening of South Luzon Express extension to Tiaong, Quezon; and, in the cards, a million SIM cards for public schools still without internet; maybe more.

What I found missing was a massive infrastructure program, of the kind, “sana,” that would mean employment of thousands of blue-collar as well as white-collar employees in one go. Is this brick-and-mortar structure missing from the family photo because the President is only too well aware that we’re sitting on a mountain of debt, something like ₱1.7 trillion? (How many zeroes in a trillion?) Would PBBM’s plan to plant 100 million coconut trees nationwide before he steps down in 2028 be sufficient as an infra project?

Senior citizens and other oldies remember too well San Juanico bridge as a photogenic, even iconic souvenir of the reign of the first President Ferdinand Marcos. In comparison, and viewed from the air, 100 million coconut trees may look massively fantastic, but only if they’re planted and growing together, side by side, enough to make a visual impact. In addition, I was told by a farmer that it takes five years for a coconut tree to produce its fruits, or sometime in 2030, two years after BBM will have left Malacañang. (Not that we need the fruits to force the project to show an impact.)

For now, the only “project” that comes to mind, sight unseen, is the subway still being built somewhere beneath España street in Manila, by the railroad tracks. Not that PBBM had anything to do with it, nor do we know if it will be done by 2028.