PBBM’s SONA: Roadmap to recovery

For more than a week now, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has been working on his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) that he will be delivering tomorrow. The President has been getting inputs from his Cabinet secretaries and from other segments of society, including the private business sector, to elucidate on the roadmap for the next six years, not only for our economic recovery but to bring the Philippines towards a place that is “better than the one we lost before the pandemic,” as he had stressed in his inaugural address.

From the President’s pronouncements, there is no doubt that he will be conducting a significantly different approach to our independent foreign policy. But while we will be strengthening relations with old allies such as the United States, we will also be reaching out to other countries, particularly within the ASEAN region, in order to pursue mutually beneficial engagements while upholding our national interests.

As the President had emphasized on several occasions, the Philippines must maintain good relations with the global community, considering that economies have become so interconnected today. And if we are to recover from the pandemic, we must work with allies and friends from the international community.

Obviously, agriculture is also high on the priority list of President BBM, who has also decided to hold the agriculture secretary portfolio for now, knowing that the sector – described as the backbone of the economy – is crucial for the country to attain food security.

To this end, the President has tasked executives of the Department of Agriculture to come up with a farm-to-market roads (FMR) master plan with priority areas to be identified in order to address supply chain issues. Meetings with the private sector were also held to come up with projects that could help our farmers.

The President is also focusing on climate change and global warming because the Philippines is one of the most vulnerable when it comes to the impact of extreme climate disasters. PBBM knows very well the kind of devastation that typhoons, earthquakes and other disasters can bring to people in provinces such as Leyte, where his mother hails from.

The President’s climate change mitigation agenda dovetails very well with his advocacy for clean energy and renewables – something that he started when he was governor of Ilocos Norte where he built the Bangui wind farm that harnesses wind power to supply electricity. The province, which has been dubbed as the renewable energy capital of the Philippines, also utilizes solar and hydro energy.

On several occasions, the President told me that he wants the United States to play a major role in helping us develop clean and renewable energy sources to avert a looming energy crisis. In fact, we have been in discussions with US Special Presidential Envoy on Climate John Kerry as well as several US energy companies on the impact of climate change and alternative sources such as nuclear to accelerate the shift to clean and renewable energy.

With regard to the economy, there is no question that the President’s appointment of the economic team managers that include Finance Secretary Ben Diokno and NEDA chief Arsenio Balisacan has not only been well received but also lauded even by those who did not vote for him.

For obvious reasons, I am not accustomed to praising relatives, but one cannot help but recognize someone who has stood out as the biggest asset of the President: presumptive House Speaker Martin Romualdez.

Speaker Martin’s experience in the legislative branch has been described as “par excellence” because of his exemplary work, having authored over 290 bills including RA 10754 that expanded the benefits and privileges of persons with disability. This is not surprising because when he first ran as congressman for the First District of Leyte in 2007, it was out of a desire to give back to the people. He went around the province when he was young and met with fellow youth leaders for livelihood, financing and other projects for out-of-school youth.

I must admit – I admire Speaker Martin’s energy and extremely pleasant personality that enables him to “unite” legislators from different party affiliations to push for the timely passage of important bills such as the two Bayanihan laws during the height of the pandemic, and the COVID-19 vaccination program law that is crucial to our economic recovery.

In fact, the presumptive Speaker is known for being a “consensus builder” – necessary in the world of politics to get proposed bills moving in Congress. Anyone who knows Speaker Martin finds him amiable – particularly members of Manila Golf where he has been president for many years.

He is basically an all-around type of person and I find him extremely astute and very good at anything that he sets his mind on.

While younger than me, Martin is street smart, resourceful, intelligent and has a good feel for people. He is highly educated, having obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Government at Cornell University, then went to Harvard for a Certificate of Special Studies in Administration. He finished his Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the Philippines College of Law, and bravely joined the Upsilon Sigma Phi – the oldest Greek-letter fraternity in Asia – in 1985. Incidentally, Martin is currently the chairman of the Upsilon Sigma Phi Alumni Association.

I am of the strong belief that the country is fortunate to have a young and progressive Speaker like Martin Romualdez, and we certainly wish him well as he takes on the leadership of the House of Representatives in the 19th Congress.

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