A let down

PHILIPPINES - In Brief 27 Jul 2020 by Romeo Bernardo

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Amidst criticisms that the government’s lockdown response, the world’s strictest and longest, has flattened the economy but not covid-19, many tuned in to President Rodrigo Duterte’s fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) to hear his roadmap for recovery. Sadly, the speech was not attuned to the gravity of the country’s health and economic problem. Much as supporters may want to highlight the list of crisis-related economic measures mentioned in the 100-minute speech (Table 1), we find the SONA notable for two things: (1) what it did not do, i.e., lay out a clear path for dealing with the pandemic with detailed plans to contain the rising infections and high occupancy of health facilities especially in Metro Manila, improve mobility through public transport and revive the economy; (2) what it was not meant to do, i.e., bully other parties, starting with an opposition senator for his supposed defense of oligarchs in the context of the ABS-CBN franchise, midway the two major telcos which he threatened with expropriation for their “lousy service” and ending again with the opposition senator, speculating on his role in designing Metro Manila’s water concessions. Our key takeaway from the President’s penultimate SONA is that rather than focused on covid-19 which he earlier said is “perhaps our number one problem today,” the President’s mind is rather preoccupied with succession planning. The speech is political through and through, intended to please his crowd and subtly turn the spotlight on prospective presidentiable Senator Bong Go. What the President seems to have failed to appreciate is that covid-19 is not just “perhaps” the number one problem but is an existential ...