State of the nation, the economy

It is an eerily quiet morning in Quezon City as I write this, as it usually is when a sitting president delivers the State of the Nation Address (SONA).

It is the calm before the storm as rallyists prepare to air their grievances and protest what most of us are feeling now – difficult times and an administration that is seemingly out of touch with the situation on the ground.

By the time this piece comes out, the SONA will have been delivered, the applause will have faded and protesters will have packed up, but the reality of our current situation remains the same.

‘Mahiya naman kayo’

This was last year’s SONA battle cry as President Marcos exposed the shameless corruption in flood control projects in what would turn out to be a Pandora’s Box of institutionalized thievery of taxpayers’ money.

A year after his 2025 SONA, what has actually happened?

There are big fish behind bars, no denying that, but the masterminds, the architects and engineers who conspired to make this grand theft happen, are still out there, including former engineers at the Department of Public Works and Highways.

This flood control scandal is a story close to my heart because I was among those who exposed how these DPWH engineers would splurge money at casinos as if, first, it was their hard-earned money and second, there was no tomorrow.

The first time I heard about it, I was shocked that a government official could gamble away hundreds of millions on baccarat or poker tables or whichever game he pleased.

And yet, here we are one year later, and some of these very people, despite their guilt, are under the government’s witness protection program.

Mastermind

More importantly, we have not seen the mastermind actually face any cases.

The ombudsman has tagged former House speaker and Leyte 1st District Rep. Martin Romualdez as the purported mastermind of the flood control projects scandal although, not surprisingly, Romualdez vehemently denied the allegation, saying the mastermind tag simply doesn’t make sense, given the way the government actually works.

“The national budget is not conceived, executed, implemented, bid out, supervised and completed by one congressman or even by Congress alone. And certainly not by the Speaker of the House,” Romualdez said in April.

Long-term solutions

Aside from the filing of cases, there must be long-term fixes at the DPWH.

I previously suggested abolishing the district engineers’ office because now we have seen how notorious corruption is among district engineers (DEs).

The scandal-serye has exposed how these DEs have become proxies of corrupt lawmakers and partners in crime. The DEs fake public biddings for multimillion-peso infrastructure projects.

Economy in trouble

The fallout from corruption has severely affected infrastructure spending which, in turn, has been a drag on the economy.

It doesn’t help that we are also facing headwinds from abroad.

Here’s where we are now:

Our economy is at its slowest growth in five years – 2.8 percent in the first quarter, the weakest pace in five years, with the flood control scandal and higher inflation both weighing on business and consumer confidence.

Dual challenges such as the flood control issue and the Middle East conflict have prompted government officials to downgrade the country’s growth target to just 3.5 to 4.5 percent for this year from its previous goal of six to seven percent. This is the second downgrade after an earlier revision to a five- to six-percent growth range.

For 2027 to 2030, the government also downgraded its growth target to five to six percent.

Inflation, another headache

Inflation is another dizzying headache for Filipinos.

While it eased further in June to 6.4 percent from the previous month’s 6.8 percent, it remained elevated and above the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ two- to four-percent target range for the year.

For the first semester, inflation averaged 4.8 percent, also higher than the target.

Our macroeconomy reporter, Louella Desiderio, in a special report, cites the case of consumers like transport network vehicle service driver Roderick Aboga, who now has to work longer, because of the crisis.

Prior to the current situation, Aboga worked for 12 hours and took home P1,500 a day after accounting for fuel, the ride-share app’s commission and other expenses.

These days, he is on the road for 16 hours, with earnings down to P800 to P1,000 a day.

“Gasoline prices are high and so are commission fees,” he said.

He said commuters, who are also trying to cut costs, are making fewer bookings.

That, plus many other signs of the times:

The peso closed at 61.487 against the dollar on Friday, a fresh record low after US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs on trading partners, including the Philippines.

Crude prices have again skyrocketed as the US and Iran have ended any efforts at peace and opted to return to the battlefield.

As such, motorists face another hefty adjustment this week, with pump prices expected to surge by more than P6 per liter as concerns over oil supply disruptions intensify.

We must brace for a price increase of P6 to P6.50 per liter for diesel and P5.50 to P6 per liter for gasoline today.

This, and more, is the state of our nation today.

The corrupt looters who stole flood control funds could not care less.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on X @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.