Exactly ten days before the midterm State-of-the-Nation Adress (SONA), independent pollster Pulse Asia, Inc. released the results of a survey asking adult Filipinos if the current administration was able to bring down the price of rice — the centerpiece campaign platform made by then-candidate Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.
Our people view elections as democracy’s great equalizer where every vote counts, regardless of socioeconomic status. Election season is the only time when every voice – the rich and the poor – is considered powerful.
It is for this reason that campaign promises, much like SONA promises, are held sacred by our people.
Former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III ran an anti-corruption campaign while former President Rodrigo Duterte ran an anti-drug and anti-crime campaign. Both presidencies were measured and their legacies remembered by their campaign promises.
What makes the 17th and incumbent President different?
As we approach, therefore, the third of the President’s six SONAs, it is important where we are in this campaign promise of P20 per kilo of rice.
Hence, I refer to the third SONA as the State of the Rice Address.
In this connection, only four percent (4%) of Filipinos are of the view that the national administration has achieved its goal of reducing the price of rice to P20 per kilo, says Pulse Asia in a report released last Friday, July 12.
A day before this, July 11, the news was average rice wholesale price jumped 24% in June.
The same Pulse Asia survey found that seven (7) out of ten (10) Filipinos believe controlling inflation as their “most urgent national concern.”
Equally important to mention that the timeline when Pulse Asia undertook its data gathering, which is June 17 to 24, is also the time, or around a week after, the President praised our country’s Economic Team for doing a good job in managing the economy — a point of view not shared by a great majority of our people.
The disconnect between the national leadership and the masses is obvious and glaring. Seventy-six percent (76%) of Filipinos disapprove government’s response to inflation.
As a senior consultant to the Policy Group of the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) during the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, we were then tasked to provide policy inputs to the drafting of the President’s SONA, in collaboration with the Directives Monitoring Unit (DMU) of the PMS, an office which monitors the status of directives issued by the President during the previous SONAs.
I do not know if these offices still exist or whether their names have been changed. Be that as it may, we hope PMS would factor in the latest survey results on inflation.
After all, this (inflation) is what most Filipinos (57%) want to be tackled in the upcoming SONA.
Indeed, it is high time for President Marcos, Jr. to take the bull by the horns and tell the people how his administration has dealt with the rising cost of rice and other basic commodities.
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Dennis Ting is a former director of the Department of Budget and Management.
