Speaker Martin Romualdez on Monday rated the performance of President Marcos with a perfect score since his previous State of the Nation Address (SONA) last year.
“I would grade the President’s performance at a solid 10 out of 10. Over the past year, he has demonstrated strong leadership and made significant strides in delivering on his promises from the last SONA,” Romualdez said.
He said the House would remain focused on approving needed legislative proposals, including priority measures identified during the last Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council as well as in the past SONA.
Romualdez also took pride in the legislative accomplishments of the House of Representatives, saying the positive impact of laws passed by the 19th Congress and signed by President Marcos is now being felt by Filipinos. “All necessary laws requested by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. in the previous SONA, everything has passed here in the House of Representatives,” he said.
“We have done our homework. We addressed concerns on food security, climate change, social protection, tourism, public health, public order and safety, among others. In fact, the fruits of our overarching development agenda initiatives for the past two years are now slowly being felt across the nation,” he added.
He said the House achieved a 100-percent approval on the third and final reading of all the 17 priority measures identified by the President in his 2023 SONA.
To further prove his point, the House leader cited the country’s economic performance in recent years.
From the third quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of 2024, he said the economy grew by an average of 6.1 percent.
For the first quarter of 2024 alone, the Philippine economy outperformed Indonesia (5.1 percent), Malaysia (4.2 percent), Singapore (2.7 percent) and Thailand (1.5 percent), he said.
He noted that in May, the National Economic and Development Authority projected that the country’s growth target of 6 percent to 7 percent this year is achievable with the implementation of appropriate government policies.
“As a result, the country is expected to continue outperforming most emerging economies and expand further to a range of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent in 2025,” Romualdez said.
Credit rating firm Fitch Ratings also affirmed last month the country’s investment-grade long-term foreign currency trading at “BBB” rating with a stable outlook, Romualdez added.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline Romualdez rates Marcos administration ‘solid 10 out of 10’ ahead of SONA 2024
