President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (Screenshot from RTVM)
MANILA, Philippines — Opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros is not setting high expectations for the second State of the Nation Address of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday, saying the incumbent administration might have been “too chill” during its first year in office.
Asked what she expects to hear in Marcos’ second Sona, Hontiveros said: “Unfortunately, not much.”
Hits and misses
From the list of promises made by Marcos during his first Sona last year, Hontiveros pointed out that only the measure wiping out the debts of more than half a million agrarian reform beneficiaries was stricken off.
She said there seems to have been more misses than hits. This including the government’s failure to address woes hounding the sectors of education, health, and transportation, among others.
“Too chill”
“Parang masyadong naging chill iyong administration sa unang taon. Kaya siguro sabi ni [House] Speaker, this may be the shortest Sona ever. Baka dahil, unfortunately, wala pang nagawa masyado,” Hontiveros told INQUIRER.net in an ambush interview.
(The administration might have been too chill in its first year. Maybe that’s why the Speaker said this may be the shortest Sona ever. Maybe because, unfortunately, they haven’t done much.)
Hontiveros then pressed the government under Marcos to “prove to Filipinos that this is an administration that can deliver.”
ICC disengagement paints bad image
Hontiveros renewed her appeal for the Philippines to cooperate with the International Criminal Court’s probe into the country’s bloody drug war.
“It wouldn’t be good at all for the image of the Philippines if we fully disengage [from the ICC],” she said partly in Filipino.
Hontiveros remains hopeful that the government under Marcos will still rethink its move to completely unclasp from The Hague-based court, and maybe, even consider returning as a member of the Rome Statute – the international treaty that established the ICC.
Last week, the ICC Appeals Chamber junked the Philippine government’s appeal to stop the tribunal’s investigation into the drug war-related killings under the leadership of Rodrigo Duterte when he was President and Davao City Mayor.
This essentially gave the go-signal for the ICC to continue probing the alleged crimes against humanity committed under the Duterte administration.
The latest ICC ruling only prompted Marcos to cement his directive for the Philippines to fully cut ties with the international body — a move that is expected to be a stumbling block in the court’s probe.