‘I am listening’

The third State of the Nation Address of President Marcos was remarkable not just for the issues that were mentioned, but for those that were left out.

One is the latest raging issue: the impounding of “savings” of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) and other government-owned and controlled corporations or GOCCs to finance unprogrammed appropriations in the current national budget.

Since those unprogrammed appropriations constitute the new congressional pork barrel, and the impounding arose from financial acrobatics during Congress’ bicameral conference on this year’s national budget, maybe BBM simply didn’t want to antagonize his SONA hosts.

But he said the combined tally of dividends remitted for the past two years by GOCCs had “exceeded” their contributions in 2022. So why the need to impound PhilHealth’s P89.9 billion in “savings” (not dividends), and go against the Universal Health Care Act?

Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, champion of the value-added tax increase from 10 percent to 12 percent and the Vape Law, continues to defend the impounding of the PhilHealth funds, which is becoming an issue for anti-administration forces.

Also out of the SONA agenda was Charter change – another pet initiative of the House of Representatives purportedly to help attract foreign investments and create jobs. Senate President Chiz Escudero told me about a week ago that Cha-cha is dead in the 19th Congress. Since it’s even more difficult to dance the Cha-cha midway through a presidential term, it’s dead, period.

A third item not mentioned is another BBM-House pet project: the Maharlika Investment Fund, which is costing taxpayers millions in monthly fat paychecks for its managers while the fund struggles to keep its head above water.

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At nearly an hour and a half even if BBM tried to inject some bombast in his delivery, it was a pretty boring speech. But maybe I’ve gotten used to the entertainment provided by Rodrigo Duterte’s stream-of-consciousness SONAs.

Fortunately, there was some excitement in the final portions of BBM’s speech, which even drew standing ovations from the super majority. Or maybe they needed to stretch their legs after the