On Monday, July 23, President Rodrigo Duterte will deliver to the Filipino people a report that has come to be known as the Sona (State of the Nation Address). However, given all the bad feelings and negative thoughts that are persuasive in this country as Mr. Duterte begins the third year of his term, Monday’s address may as well be called the Distaste of the Nation Address.
There is so much distaste in this country today. The sources of the distaste—the bad taste in the mouth—span the spectrum of the nation’s life, ranging from seemingly intractable poverty, resurgent corruption and rising criminality to mismanagement of the economy and misconduct of the nation’s external relations.
Undoubtedly the most important source of the national distaste at mid-year 2018 is the poverty that grips a large part of the national population. The most recent SWS (Social Weather Stations) self-rated poverty sampling placed at 26 percent the percentage of families that rated themselves as poor. That was just too many families in Duterte campaigned in 2016 on the basis of, among other things, the slogan “Change Is Coming.” The promised change has not yet arrived and, if their feeling of distaste is any indication, the Filipino people apparently believe that it is unlikely to come during Mr. Duterte’s term.
Another source of the prevailing sense of distaste is the Duterte administration’s obsession with constitutional change and a shift to federalism when, in the people’s view—72 percent of those polled, according to a very recent survey—the leaders of this country should be preoccupied with reducing poverty and providing more jobs and income. Adding to the distaste is the talk of postponement of the May 2019 national election and the resulting extension of the terms of incumbents.
The illegalities and abuses associated with the illegal drugs part of Mr. Duterte’s three-item campaign promise (“I will resign if I do not eradicate illegal drugs, crime and corruption within six months”) are now parts of the national landscape, but the resurgence of corruption at all levels of government is causing a lot of popular concern and frustration as Rodrigo Duterte starts the third year of his term. Two sources of the distaste in this regard are (1) the appointment of high officials on a basis other than personal merit and (2) the repeated recycling of dismissal officials to other government offices. In the matter of government corruption, change clearly has not come.
A further source of the prevailing national sense of distaste is the apparent indifference of the Duterte administration to the grave impact of its TRAIN (Tax Reform and Inclusion) program on the purchasing power—and therefore the standard of living—of the lower income groups. The excise taxes on petroleum products have been especially hurtful because of their effort on manufacturing costs, energy and transportation. The poor are truly hurting, but the only consolation that the economic authorities have given them is the quivering assurance that the upsurge in consumers prices will cease at some point in the near future.
Nor is the news from other areas of the economy providing a basis for felicity. The five-year-high 5.2-percent inflation rate in June has been accompanies by the widening of the merchandise trade gap to $3.7 billion in May, the dripping of the nation’s international reserve to its lowest level in six years and the Philippines remaining near the bottom of the FDI (foreign direct investment) ladder. At the rate that the economic indicators are deteriorating, the Philippine economy’s managers may find that its “sound macro-economic fundamentals” have ceased to be as sound as they have long been.
Just as important as––or arguably more important than––the other sources of the national sense of distaste is the Duterte administration’s unacceptable attitude toward this country’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, which were upheld by the July 2016 ruling of the (PCA) Permanent Court of Arbitration. President Duterte simply refuses to do anything effective to enforce the ruling, saying (1) that the Philippines is in no position to go to war against China and (2) that commercial loans and other economic goodies are preferable to the territories that the PCA awarded to this country yet. Opinion-survey results released last week indicated that three out of every four Filipinos want the government to take concrete steps toward protecting the PCA award.
On Monday Mr. Duterte will tell the Filipino people about the “State of the Nation.” “Distaste of the Nation” is a better name for the address that he will be delivering on that day.