A few days more, and it will be 2025. What’s in store for the Filipino people?
Facts today: more than 30,000 EJKs and Red-tagged victims and their families waiting for justice, so with more than 750 political prisoners nationwide; the Philippines’ outstanding debt stands at P16.02-trillion as of October’24; the P20/kg of rice still missing and high prices of vegetables, sibuyas, meat and fish are hardly affordable; Math, Science, Language proficiency and Critical thinking skills of Filipino students are still below international standards, and the national healthcare system needs lots of improvement, including fair wages for health workers.
There are more problems the country is facing: China’s continuing aggressive encroachment into the country’s sovereignty, despite the victorious arbitral judgment of the Hague tribunal in July 2016, causing disruptions of the livelihood of fishermen and research work of the country’s maritime scientists; the lack of appropriate assistance for indigenous communities (worse, they are falsely accused by AFP units of aiding the NPA, their schools shut down, their leaders harassed, arrested or killed); millions of Filipinos are jobless, and if employed suffer inadequate pay; millions are landless and homeless, and beggars abound especially in the streets of urban areas. More than half of the Filipino population are poor.
Drugs and Pork Barrel
There is the continuing proliferation of drugs in the market (despite former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s promise in 2016 to solve the drug problem in a few weeks, but quite understandable now with the Congress’ Quad Committee officially tagging him, his son Davao Rep. Paolo Duterte, Senators Christopher "Bong" Go and Ronald "Bato" De la Rosa, and several others as responsible for “Crimes vs Humanity”); corruption remains rampant as exemplified by VP Sara Duterte who has been unable to justify her spending P125 million, the people’s tax money, in 11 days, and the inaction on the accountability of 20 senators and 100 congressmen in the pork barrel scam, as exposed in Janet Lim Napoles’ affidavit.
Budget Priorities
On the 2025 budget, specifically on the General Appropriations bill (GAB), the dynasty-dominated Congress’ bicameral conference gave zero budget to PhilHealth, even after its supposedly unused fund of P90-billion (which management failed to spend creatively to maximize its service to the health needs of the poor in particular) was targeted by DOF secretary Ralph Recto for transfer to the national government, for funding the government’s unprogrammed appropriations.
Also, compared to the proposed budgets set by the House of Representatives, a P12-billion-peso cut was made on the budget for DepEd, a reduction of P5.8-billion for the SUCs, and a cut of P3.4-billion for Ched. This reduction of the budget for education, as constitutionally required, should not have been done because education should be given priority in the nation’s budget.
A more serious concern is that while the country’s projected national revenue for 2025 is P4.583-trillion, Congress is budgeting P6.352-trillion, resulting in a deficit of P1.769-trillion. Wouldn’t this force the government to borrow again and increase its ballooning debt in 2025, and lead to more financial woes for the country?
Damocles Sword
More unresolved issues: Congress or the DOJ or President Bongbong Marcos himself with his VP Sara Duterte should face head-on the truth of the TNTrio’s claim of the rigging of the May 9, 2022 elections by Comelec/Smartmatic, especially since Chairman George Erwin Garcia and his fellow Commissioners have failed until now to explain how in one hour, after the closing of voting at 7pm, 20 million votes were counted in favor of Bongbong Marcos – which is statistically improbable, given the administrative procedures required to making any official public announcement.
On Freedoms of Speech, of the Press, and of Assembly, the mainstream media, TV, Radio and the newspapers have been timid in reporting grievances aired in press conferences and street parliaments.
Is government always ready to drop its Damocles sword, as it did with ABS-CBN in the past?
The people are getting impatient, somehow.
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