We note that President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr, in his penultimate State of the Nation Address (SONA), focused on his government’s efforts to provide relief to workers and the poor amidst the economic crisis worsened by the attacks of US-Israel on Iran. We also note that for workers and all Filipinos, he emphasized job creation by attracting foreign investors into the country and strengthening social protection.

We recognize these measures and the relief that they provide to workers and all Filipinos. At the same time, as an NGO working on workers’ labor and human rights, we are disappointed by the president’s SONA. He mentioned right of way, but not rights, not in English or Filipino. No mention of political prisoners, victims of extrajudicial killings, and activists targed with trumped-up charges of various kinds. This silence is consistent with the repression of protestors during the SONA.

Workers need not only the jobs promised by the president, which are often of low quality, or the relief measures that he bragged about, which are often short-lived. Workers need enabling conditions for the free exercise of their right to unionize. Unionization is workers’ way of improving their lot and working for social justice. Workers cannot effectively unionize when unionists and labor activists are under attack. His fourth SONA shows that Marcos Jr still does not understand these truths.

The media is saturated with news about the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. While it is clear that his administration supports the trial, the president’s SONA is silent on this topic. He wasted the opportunity to talk about politicians’ accountability for corruption and wrongdoing, strengthening the country’s democracy against corruption and impunity, and the rule of law. This, even as he made the welcome announcements about corruption in the flood control projects.

President Marcos Jr talked about the crisis only in relation to relief measures for workers and Filipinos. Crises are opportunities to change the country’s economic direction, but he remains trapped in the framework of job generation via foreign investments. The country needs pro-people and state-led industrialization and agricultural development, but these were clearly not in the president’s mind.

As a US stooge, Marcos Jr reiterated lies about Pax Silica. This initiative is not about creating opportunities for Filipinos and the country. It is a geopolitical move by the US to strengthen its position against, and prepare for intensified conflicts with, China. Our conflicts with China can be resolved peacefully, but the US’ conflict with China cannot. Pax Silica is not about jobs and industries, but about the threat of war.