With passion comes purpose

They say that passion is a strong and barely controllable emotion and that a man with passion should also have purpose, as it provides the direction and focus that passion needs to be truly fulfilling and impactful.

The recent State of the Nation Address was the fourth delivered by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the question on everybody’s mind is, can he deliver on such big promises? Barely out of the recent storms, the Marcos administration is making more plans and yes, while I still see the President’s passion and vowing that the government will do better in the next three years of his administration, a genuine recognition that positive gains made mean very little when ordinary Filipinos continue to struggle.

In addition, the President still calls for unity and putting aside differences. One of the most significant promises made during the SONA, and one that is close to my heart, is the promise to address education gaps and placing education at the top of the administration’s list of priorities.

Nevertheless, one major announcement during the President’s speech caught everybody’s attention – when he consciously acknowledged the people’s dissatisfaction, specifically towards the end of his speech, after seeing so much devastation due to the recent floods where he saw for himself the sub-standard flood control projects and worse, the practically nonexistent ones.

This was probably the part that got everybody out of their seats, especially when the President tells us not to kid ourselves about public works projects that are being milked by corrupt officials through kickbacks and other “for the boys” practices. In his words, “Mahiya naman kayo,” the President faced the public and called it what it is – a real shame. The audacity indeed of the corrupt to continue what they do at the expense of ordinary citizens and, without a doubt, like the President said, their time of reckoning is near.

Passionately, the President expressed his determination to expose the corrupt, even promising to publish a list to prevent theft of public funds in all flood control projects in every region in the last three years, including a report on failures, projects not finished and ghost projects. An audit and performance review was also thrown into the mix with regard to these projects in order to check how every single centavo is used – every centavo that belongs to the Filipino people.

To top it off, the President told the public that cases will be filed, which will include contractors across the country. Thievery in government indeed raised the President’s passion for good governance as he delivered his fourth State of the Nation Address – and I felt it. Didn’t we all?

Now we watch – and I say watch because we can no longer wait. The Philippines can no longer afford to wait. This is precisely why passion needs purpose because in the next few months, these deliverables need to be put into action. The purpose of reforming government is to ensure its efficiency, effectiveness and, more importantly, the accountability of the public servants who pledge to serve the public with integrity.

With so many challenges looming over our nation, honest to goodness reforms are needed in order for us to adapt to changing times. Resilience is outdated – necessary but outdated. We need to stop banking on Filipino resilience and start investing in public accountability and transparency in order to ensure that proper services are provided for the people.

Filipinos deserve a better life and I’m banking on the President’s promises but, like we have said before, it is truly now or never.