Filipino workers, workers’ organizations and their advocates have every reason to be dismayed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) which is deafeningly silent on workers’ rights.

Marcos Jr’s SONA does not talk about the human rights violations committed by his predecessor that remain unaddressed to this day. The president does not discuss his government’s failure to legislate a significant wage increase for workers or other labor issues. He does not mention holding to account the biggest human rights violators and plunderers in the country.

The president’s introduction of calling for unity and ending political rifts does not bode well for addressing the human rights violations committed by former President Rodrigo Duterte. It also precludes ending the human rights violations that were committed by Duterte but continue to this day.

Under Duterte, a few hundred unionists and labor activists were extrajudicially killed. Tens were arrested and imprisoned over trumped-up charges and planted evidence. Where is the justice for those killed and unjustly detained? There are still 21 political prisoners from the labor movement today. When will they be freed?

Marcos Jr boasts that no guerilla groups exist in the country today but refuses to release the 21 political prisoners from the labor movement and end the government practice of red-tagging activist organizations. These measures were carried out by Duterte’s government in the guise of ending the armed insurgency, even as they actually targeted labor activists and organizations.

Marcos Jr did not talk about the legislated wage hike that he initially supported but abandoned and continued to be silent on contractualization which remains rampant despite Duterte’s promise of ending it. Despite claiming that the economy is improving, he did not make any commitment to improving workers’ rights.

The president predictably made a pitch attracting foreign investors into the country, saying that Filipino workers are “skilled and adaptable.” The thrust of his economic policy is to continue selling cheap and repressed Filipino labor, and his statements do not augur well for workers’ rights.

Despite his bombast in supposedly going after those responsible for the country’s poor flood control infrastructure, for which he was rightly blamed, Marcos Jr is silent about Vice-president Sara Duterte’s impeachment. The Supreme Court’s junking of the impeachment cases against Duterte is a burning issue that the president should have addressed, especially as it concerns accountability of government officials who are accused of pocketing the people’s money.