President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. launched his administration’s Bagong Pilipinas battlecry in last year’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), as he declared that “the state of the nation is sound, and is improving.”
“Dumating na po ang Bagong Pilipinas,” he said in closing his one hour, 11-minute address to the joint session of the 19th Congress.
In his past two SONAs, the chief executive has made 113 promises, including 40 in 2023, based on VERA Files’ count.
Of the 40 promises last year, eight were fulfilled: recalibrating the K to 10 curriculum, granting amnesty to rebel returnees and passing six bills – new Government Procurement Law, Value-Added Tax on Non-Resident Digital Service Providers, Anti-Financial Accounts Scamming Act, Tatak-Pinoy Law, Ease of Paying Taxes, and the LGU income classification law.
Three of the bills — the new Government Procurement, VAT digital service providers and Anti-Financial Account Scamming – have yet to be ratified and forwarded to the president for signing into law.
Nothing much is heard about the Maharlika Investment Fund, which was legislated in haste in 2023 and envisioned to boost investments and fund big-ticket infrastructure projects.
At least 12 more measures meant to improve the economy, create jobs, ease doing business are still pending in the legislative mill: excise tax on single-use plastics, rationalization of mining fiscal regime, motor vehicle user’s charge/road user’s tax, military and uniformed personnel pension, amendment of the Fisheries Code, amendment of the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act, amendment of the Cooperative Code, new Government Auditing Code, the Blue Economy bill, and immigration bill.
Marcos has failed in his 2022 aspiration to have a gross national income per capita of at least US$4,256 and attain “upper middle-income” status by 2024 and attain the Philippine peso exchange to average at between P51 and P53 per $US1 in 2022; and P51 – P55 per $US1 in 2023.
Gross national income per person was at US$1,092 as of the first quarter of 2024 while the peso-dollar exchange rate for 2023 was at P55.63 per U.S. dollar. Last April, the monthly average for peso dropped to P58.60 per U.S. dollar, based on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data.
In the past year, the president managed to deliver on two of his promises in his 2022 SONA: providing adequate funds for centers for vulnerable persons and establishing specialty hospitals outside Metro Manila, similar to the Philippine Heart Center and the Lung Center of the Philippines in Quezon City.
In August 2023, Marcos signed Republic Act 11959 or the Regional Specialty Centers Act, mandating the Department of Health to establish specialty centers on cancer care, cardiovascular care, lung care and renal care, among others, outside Metro Manila.
In January, Marcos said 131 medical specialty centers were established nationwide in 2023. The administration is aiming to put up 179 more medical specialty centers by 2028.
Four of the bills he asked Congress to approve to better equip the country for a health crisis like COVID-19 have remained in the legislative mill. These are measures creating a Philippine Center for Disease Control, Virology Institute of the Philippines, Medical Reserve Corps and a Magna Carta for Barangay Healthcare Workers — all of which have been stalled in the Senate. A year after the COVID-19 public health emergency was lifted, these four bills had been dropped from the list of priority legislations for the 19th Congress.
In his 2023 SONA, Marcos refrained from mentioning his election campaign “aspiration” to bring down rice prices to P20 per kilo. However, the Department of Agriculture persisted in following the chief executive’s order to expand Kadiwa stores and bring down rice prices by launching the Bigas 29 program, aimed to sell rice at P29 per kilo.
The president has made good on his promise to embark on more trips abroad as he boasted that forging more international partnerships “lead to a more balanced trade strategy and a healthier economic position.”
Indeed, in his second year in office, Marcos made 15 foreign trips to 11 countries. Travel funds for his office increased by P507 million in the 2024 national budget— from P893 million in 2023 to P1.4 billion.
In the home front, he has yet to score high in his promise to dismantle drug syndicates, penalize “unscrupulous law enforcers and others” involved in illegal drug trade and file charges against
The target to build six million low-cost housing units had been slashed by half, according to Housing Secretary Jerry Acuzar.
VERA Files tracked the progress in 40 promises Marcos made in his 2023 SONA and came up with this scorecard: fulfilled – 8; in progress – 27; stalled- 5; failed – 0.
Find out what he has achieved—and what he did not—in our 2023 SONA Promise Tracker.
