DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The Dutertes may be the bitter rivals against the Marcoses, but it was the activists and progressives that showed up in numbers during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday of July 28.
The groups articulated more of the people’s frustrations under the presidency of Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. filling the streets in protest marches in Metro Manila and in the Duterte bailiwick Davao City.
Four senators allied with Duterte snubbed the SONA while four House members walked out from the opening session of Congress.
There were no rallies scheduled by the Duterte camp or by their movement called Hakbang ng Maisug. Vice President Sara Duterte, whose impeachment trial is now halted by the Supreme Court, was in South Korea attending a pro-Duterte rally.
The senators who snubbed the SONA are Christopher ‘Bong’ Go, former police chief Ronaldo ‘Bato’ dela Rosa, actor Robin Padilla and Marcos Jr’s sister Imee, who have long supported Vice President Sara Duterte.
Their party-mate, the newly elected Senator Rodante Marcoleta, attended the SONA.
Duterte’s son Congressman Paolo ‘Polong’ staged the walkout with ally Isidro Ungab, Davao City’s 3rd district rep, and two neophyte congressmen — his son Omar from Davao’s second district and cousin Harold from the PPP Party-list.
Polong Duterte issued a statement saying they are neither aligned with the majority or the minority bloc in the House, and called the set-up a “Game of Thrones”, alluding to the popular book turned TV series of kingdoms warring for power.
Frustrations articulated
But the activist groups and progressives in Davao, long bashed, red-tagged and harassed by the Dutertes and their supporters, turned out more articulate in their frustration with Marcos Jr.
In a rally held in Freedom Park led by Bayan, speakers from youth groups Kabataan, Gabriela Youth and Sabokahan IP women aired their issues that the Marcos Jr. administration failed to address.
Kabataan points to the lack of programs for education reforms, while Sabokahan and a representative from Selda highlight the dismal human rights record of Marcos Jr. as the Lumad and activists continue to face harassment.
In Marcos Jr’s brief 71-minute SONA delivered in Batasang Pambansa, the President painted reforms in education, agriculture, public health, and called for accountability in corruption and failures in disaster response, alluding to the recent disaster brought by Typhoon Crising.
The President boasts of providing laptops for students and ensuring education reforms, and promised to expand public health services for free surgery, kidney transplants.
But protesters and other groups see that the president’s SONA lacked a clear agenda.
“Marcos Jr’s SONA seems to be in the planning phase,” Cobbie Jan Canda, chairperson of Kabataan Partylist Southern Mindanao
“The people are suffering from hunger, attacks, harassment, and trumped-up charges—like in the case of Agusan 6. This is the reality in Southern Mindanao and the rest of the nation that he is erasing and ignoring”, the youth leader said.
Bayan Muna Partylist Vice President Atty. Carlos Zarate observed that while Marcos Jr’s SONA is “a narrative of progress and stability, the ground situation tells a different story—where families struggle daily with skyrocketing prices of basic goods, stagnant wages, massive unemployment”, saying this shows a crisis of governance.
For Rauf Sissay from Bayan Southern Mindanao, the SONA may have acknowledged the people’s problems, but lacks concrete solutions.
“He did not mention comprehensive steps to address these issues… the proposal for significant wage increases for workers or detailed responses to the deepening education crisis and widening socioeconomic inequality,” said Sissay.
Envi and agri issues
Even environment and farming advocates from Mindanao note that the SONA failed to tackle their sectoral issues.
Mark Peñalver, executive director of Interface for Development Interventions for Sustainability (IDIS), said the SONA did not address environment and climate change, a major issue brought by recent disasters the Filipinos experienced.
“He should have at least called out destructive activities that continue to destroy our ecosystem, pollute our rivers, our air and displace our communities,” Peñalver said. “What do we expect from leaders who continue to plunder our environment in the name of progress?”
Leo XL Fuentes, coordinator of MASIPAG Mindanao, noted that the many programs that Marcos Jr. laid out in agriculture, “lacks social grounding” and are “rehash of past and existing policies of failure in Philippine agriculture”.
He noted the president’s push for high-yielding farm production only burdens the farmers. “Truth remains that Filipino farmers suffer the brunt of costly production inputs due from hybrid seeds and petro-chemicals.
The President’s boasting of land reform such as land distribution and cancellation of debts, Fuentes said, is “clearly for tokenism. Fact remains, 7 out of 10 Filipino farmers remain landless.”
As to the Kadiwa stores that Marcos Jr. boasted that deliver his promise of delivering rice worth 20 pesos per kilo, Fuentes observes “the Filipino people can attest that these are nothing but pure gimmickry and unsustainable, which only lasted for half a day.” Noting that the supplies in these stores address the food supply for millions of Filipinos.
These issues were earlier raised by Dabawenyos weeks before the SONA, where they expressed the burden of rising prices of goods, weak infrastructure that failed to address floods, and limited access to basic services. (link Facebook on the street interview)
The progressive groups, including the Makabayan coalition in the House, said they will continue to challenge Marcos Jr. to exact reforms beyond his picture of progress and token promises laid down in his SONA.(davaotoday.com)
