Watch those SONA promises

After President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s first State of the Nation Address yesterday, some critics were quick to point out some things that he didn’t mention in his address.

In particular they point out human rights, labor issues, the fuel crisis, and the transport crisis, among others.

To be fair, you can’t expect everything to be mentioned in a SONA. Even an entire SONA will not be enough to cover all the topics all the different sectors in the Philippines want addressed. These issues may have been left out not because he didn’t want to talk about them, but simply because they could no longer be accommodated in such a long speech.

But let’s focus more on the things that were promised, the things that his allies and even those who usually criticize him praised alike.

Among others, he talked about rightsizing the government. This will certainly help in streamlining some processes and freeing up money that can be used elsewhere. To further streamline processes he also said he will push to digitize government records and transactions so these can be shared throughout different agencies.

He also mentioned to push Congress for a law that would condone the debts of agrarian reform beneficiaries and that he plans to increase agriculture production in the next planting season by giving farmers financial and technical assistance.

He also said he will push for the passage of a law for a disability pension and to further clean up the lists of the 4Ps program of those who are no longer qualified to be “poor”.

For law enforcers and soldiers he also said he will be distributing 52,000 hectares of unused agricultural lands to landless war veterans, surviving spouses and orphans of war veterans, and army and police retirees.

For the Overseas Filipino Workers he promised to “shorten” the hiring process. As for our sovereignty he said he will not “abandon even a square inch of territory of the Republic of the Philippines to any foreign power.”

For Cebu he mentioned that the Bus Rapid Transit project will be pursued under his administration. He also promised to finish railway projects around the country, including one for Mindanao.

Like earlier, even an entire editorial will not be enough to list all the things he mentioned, but those listed above alone are enough to leave us dreamy.

But we should realize that for now, those are still dreams. Politicians tend to promise the moon and the stars, campaign period or not.

Don’t get us wrong, he paints such a dreamy picture, one that we would actually like to see fulfilled. For now these are good-looking promises, but mere promises nevertheless. We look forward to them being acted on and being fulfilled. Watch those promises to see if they do.