Don’t raise too high expectations if you don’t want to be disappointed. But it will not be too much to expect President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) to re-double his efforts to meet the to-do things in the remaining two years of his term. For starters, PBBM should just ignore political hecklers after he delivers his penultimate State of the Nation Address (SONA) before the 20th Congress today.
Whoever is the president, the SONA has never earned 100 percent satisfaction rating anyway. And PBBM is no exception, including the present 20th Congress which also begins the penultimate session of its three-year term.
Like PBBM, half of the 24 incumbent senators and the entire House of Representatives are co-terminus with him on June 30, 2028. The SONA is the report card of the President who shares this with the sitting lawmakers as the tradition calls for it every joint opening session of Congress.
So calling him a “lame duck” President is nothing but heckling, plain and simple.
There’s still a lot of unfinished programs and projects still doable in the last two years in office of PBBM. The Chief Executive cannot answer for the two co-equal branches of government. Thus, he can only do so much.
The President can count on the lawmakers who comprise the other half of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), where the top leaderships of Congress led by the Senate president and the Speaker and the respective chairpersons of the Senate and the Lower House are called upon to determine and agree on what will be their common legislative agenda (CLA).
How will the pursuit of CLA fit in with the ongoing impeachment trial at the Senate of Vice President Sara Duterte? The afternoon trials started three weeks ago while both chambers of Congress were still in recess. Thus, the impeachment trial will be held henceforth in the mornings when they resume their 10th hearing this Wednesday. Hence, the lawmakers directly involved in the impeachment trial will be able to perform and concentrate on their legislative duties in the afternoons. And it would still be conducted three times a week.
But here’s another complication. At least one month after the SONA, the President must submit to Congress the proposed General Appropriations Act (GAA) for 2027. As provided for in our country’s 1987 Constitution, the annual budget bill must be first tackled by the House committee on appropriations. This, however, does not preclude the Senate to start conducting their own public hearings on the GAA to minimize delay in its approval into law before yearend.
Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian and Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III must find a way how they in the 20th Congress will go about these challenges ahead. It was Gatchalian, as then chairman of the Senate finance committee, and Speaker Dy who first implemented the policy of opening to the public the bicameral conference (bicam) hearing on the Senate-House approved 2026 GAA.
Now as Senate chief, Gatchalian passed on the baton to Sen. JV Ejercito to chair the Senate finance committee in charge of shepherding the 2027 GAA bill. Currently the Senate deputy majority leader, Senator JV vowed to continue this open bicam as a way “to prevent insertions” in the upcoming 2027 GAA bill. Though facing re-election in the coming May 2028 elections, Senator JV told his fellow lawmakers they must only accept amendments in the 2027 GAA bill with utmost transparency.
Having served in the past as San Juan City mayor and congressman, Senator JV conceded the reputation of Congress suffered severe institutional damage from the “insertions” on done deals on the flood control projects. It was PBBM himself who exposed these shenanigans in the past budgets approved by 19th Congress in his SONA last year.
So in today’s SONA, PBBM is expected to report what has transpired since then, from the ensuing investigations into the corruption and anomalies unearthed at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Fast forward. Several criminal cases of malversation of funds, plunder, money-laundering, graft and corruption have been filed at the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Office of the Ombudsman, the lower courts all the way to the Sandiganbayan. Former senator Ramon Revilla Jr. and a sitting Sen. Jinggoy Estrada are back again as cellmates. Along with several DPWH district engineers, they are cooling their heels this time at the Payatas Jail in Quezon City.
Sadly, no alleged “cong-tractors” have been jailed yet. Resigned Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co, who chaired the House appropriations committee that approved the 2023 to the 2025 GAA, remains a fugitive hiding abroad.
Except for two Marcos Cabinet members who resigned at the height of the flood control projects scandal, ex-DPWH Sec.Manny Bonoan is in hospital detention awaiting his petition to turn state witness. Ex-Albay Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda was sworn in last week as the new Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO). Salceda took over from former PLLO head Adrian Bersamin who, along with his granduncle – former Marcos’ executive secretary – resigned after their names were linked to the flood control projects mess.
For sure, PBBM and select members of his Cabinet led by Executive Secretary Ralph Recto will meet up with their counterpart leaders of Congress in selecting priority urgent bills. Most likely, a few days after the SONA, PBBM will call for a LEDAC meeting at Malacañang for this purpose.
The President can crack the whip, so to speak, on his Cabinet officials to attend to their respective jobs with a sense of urgency in the remainder of this administration’s term. The Cabinet, as a team, must work harder to help PBBM accomplish his administration’s priorities still languishing in the pipelines of the bureaucracy. The challenge is greater though for the most recently installed department secretaries appointed in the last two minutes of PBBM’s administration.
It is only when Filipinos see, feel and sense the government is working to better their lives that PBBM’s declining approval and trust ratings can start to climb up again.