VERA Files
First on Marcos’ agenda for armed forces is the revamping of the current pension system for military and uniformed personnel. The administration is also fast-tracking measures that seek to make the ROTC and NSTP mandatory for tertiary education.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s promise to boost local energy sources is anchored on private capital, so the government is courting investors to beef up the country’s natural gas and renewable energy industries amid a looming energy crisis.
Marcos admitted that the Philippines is walking a “very fine line” in balancing foreign relations. He said the Philippines must refrain from embracing the “cold war mentality” without having to choose between global powers such as the United States, Russia and China.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. breezed through the education sector, identifying only five general changes he wanted to implement for learners and teachers in the country. This is a task Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio took on as Education secretary.
One year into office, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is yet to deliver “substantial” progress on his promises to improve the Philippine economic situation. But the administration’s economic managers stay optimistic that the country “remains firmly on track” toward post-pandemic recovery.
Out of the four labor-related promises Marcos mentioned in his maiden SONA, none tackled the pressing issues that Filipino workers face today.
Of the six promises Marcos made on agriculture, three were fulfilled. His administration succeeded in providing loans to the agriculture sector for farm inputs, imposing a one-year moratorium on payment of land amortization and interest and the signing into law of the new Agrarian Emancipation Act.
Even after Congress has approved the bill creating the multibillion-peso Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), questions about its constitutionality remain, particularly on President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s reason certifying it as urgent.
Anong emergency ang gustong matugunan nang madalian ng MIF? Ano ang itinuturing na pampublikong kalamidad o emergency? Emergency ba ang kahirapan? Narito ang apat na bagay na kailangan mong malaman.
Speaking before his supporters in Cebu City last May 27, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. boasted that the Philippines is the “fastest growing country in the world,” attributing this to the right direction his administration has taken to fulfill his campaign promises. This is at least the second time, by VERA Files Fact Check’s count, that Marcos made an inaccurate claim about the Philippines’ economic standing.