‘SONA must provide clear direction vs COVID-19’

MANILA, Philippines — There should be no more threats or denials of blunders in handling the COVID-19 crisis in President Duterte’s fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA), only a clear roadmap on how the country will fight the pandemic and help the economy recover.

“In the 2020 SONA, the government must not give us the runaround. The people will no longer be duped by gimmicks, theatrics, or threats,” Sen. Risa Hontiveros said, adding a comprehensive plan to revive the economy was “long overdue.”

“The government should own up to past mistakes in handling the pandemic,” Hontiveros said.

She said Duterte’s SONA should inform the public on how government intends to solve the most pressing problems faced by Filipinos today, starting with the pandemic, as coronavirus infections continue to rise and spread in many parts of the country.

She warned that COVID-19 cases have reached 80,000 with nearly 2,000 deaths. Over seven million Filipinos have also lost their jobs, she said.

Sen. Nancy Binay also pressed Duterte to focus on the government’s “realistic action plans” on what will it do in the coming months to battle the impact of the pandemic on public health and the economy.

“At this critical moment, people are already drained of listening to reports on what was done in the past seven months. What the people wanted to hear from the President are those what need to be done more in the next five to 12 months…and show to the nation a clear step-by-step roadmap out of the pandemic,” Binay said in a statement.

For his part, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said he hopes to listen to a “granular SONA to include one-month battle plan to stop pandemic from reaching tipping point.”

Sen. Sonny Angara said he wants the SONA to tell the people what can be expected for the rest of the year and 2021.

In the House of Representatives, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda  called on the national government to ease more pandemic restrictions and go on with what he called the “economic offensive.”

“We cannot defeat the economic recession by trying to stop change. It will happen. We can’t save every job. The economy has changed too much,” Salceda, chairman of the House committee on ways and means, said.

Meanwhile, the private sector is hoping that President Duterte will provide alternative means of rescuing the entire agriculture value chain from the pandemic’s impact as he delivers his penultimate State of the Nation Address today.

The Philippine Chamber of Agriculture and Food Inc. (PCAFI) and the Agri Fisheries Alliance (AFA) said they are anticipating new promises to the farm sector in light of closures of micro, small and medium enterprises and poverty-worsening impact of COVID-19 to 4.1 million rural poor people.

Agriculture’s economic significance has been undervalued for decades despite its huge potential as a gateway for industrialization and economic recovery, the two groups noted.