President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. shared his plans to improve the country’s education, health, technology, business, and travel sectors—here are some highlights.
On July 22, 2024, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. delivered his third State Of the Nation Address (SONA) at the House of Representatives in Manila. As part of the longstanding tradition, his roughly hour-long speech assessed his administration’s achievements over the past year while shedding light on pressing issues today, offering citizens a glimpse of what the president has in store for the duration of his term.
Below is a recap of the salient points that made up President Marcos’ speech, namely those concerning his statistics and plans for the country’s education, health, technology, business, and travel sectors.
READ ALSO: Local Couture: Filipino Designs Shine At SONA 2023
Education
Marcos began with a glowing report on the country’s higher education (universities), which have climbed international rankings during his administration. 87 of the country’s higher education institutions are now part of various world university rankings, with 51 being public universities or colleges. The president adds that there’s been a significant increase in higher education enrollment within both public and private institutions—as well as technical-vocational education and training (TEVET)—during his term.
As TEVET has yielded 8 out of 10 graduates “landing decent jobs,” the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, and Department of Labor and Employment, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority are working on incorporating TEVET into the country’s Senior High School Curriculum to boost student employability.
That said, more than half of the country’s Grade 6, 10, and 12 students have failed to reach the ideal proficiency levels in information literacy, problem solving, and critical thinking skills. As such, the president stated that his administration is working to provide all students with “computers, smart TVs, essential programs, digital books, and access to reliable power and the internet.”
He also emphasized the importance of empowering and upskilling the country’s teachers, who are the backbone of the education system. Part of his plan to do this is by providing public school teachers with a “teaching allowance” for school supplies and other learning-related materials, starting next year (2025). Also included is a “personal accident insurance” from the Government Service Insurance System, which aims to support teachers who experience personal hardships that challenge their careers. The Macros administration will also offer tracks in teaching and academic administration that will help promote better career growth among public school teachers.
Health
The president highlighted two upcoming institutions that aim to alleviate the overcrowding or congestion problems that many of the country’s hospitals face today. These are the UP-PGH Cancer Center (which is the first public-private partnership that gained approval under Marcos’ administration), and the Philippine Cancer Center of the Department of Health (which broke ground in March 2024).
“These centers will be a godsend to the more than 400,000 Filipinos who are afflicted with this deadly disease,” he states. The president’s administration also opened more than 20 new urgent care and ambulatory service centers in different parts of the country as well to further help decongest hospitals, especially for conditions that do not require hospital admission.
PhilHealth has also expanded the number of generic medicines it covers, according to Marcos, increasing the number from 21 to 53. These include new medicines for nerve pain and epileptic seizures.
Technology
Marcos stated that the government’s Free Wi-Fi program has given around 10 million “unique user devices” access to the internet across more than 13,000 locations around the Philippines. The president also announced that they have completed Phase 1 of the National Fiber Backbone (with Phase 2 and Phase 3 to be completed by 2026), a project that aims to improve the capacity of the country’s bandwidth. Marcos also hopes to work on more common towers alongside private sector partners, which provide better internet connectivity to places in farther-flung areas of the country.
In line with these connectivity improvements, the president will be implementing the recently-launched National Cybersecurity Plan. The plan “lays down the blueprint for us to safeguard our systems against cyber attacks,” he explains.
Other plans include the launch of a Multi-Spectral Unit for Land Assessment (MULA) satellite in the United Kingdom. 16 engineers from the Philippines are working on the satellite, which will be the country’s largest earth observation satellite to date, reports Laurice Angeles of Rappler. Satellites play an important role in capturing essential information from space, and the nation currently has eight: two microsatellites Diwata-1 and Diwata-2, and six cube satellites Maya-1 to -6.
Business and Employment
Marcos reveals that a “substantial amount of investment pledges have already commenced operations with many more at various stages of development.” He hopes that this will create more than 220,000 quality, competitive jobs for Filipinos to address today’s rising unemployment rates. At present, the rationalized incentives scheme under Marcos’ CREATE act has also generated around one trillion pesos and more than 100,000 new jobs.
He also brought up his administration’s constant efforts to ease the process of doing business in the country. This is largely attributed to streamlined transaction processes through digitization. Marcos cites the IT capabilities of Public Employment Service Offices (PESOs), with shortened timelines that led to significant increases in new businesses and corporate registrations, including foreign firms.
Travel
Travel was an integral point of Marcos’ speech, especially in regard to boosting tourism in the country. “Our infrastructure and digital reforms to the development of tourism sites, and the enhancement of the overall tourist experience, are all calculated to boost the productivity of the tourism sector,” he elaborates.
A part of this is the implementation of an e-travel system, which will streamline the immigration and emigration processes of passengers through one data collection system. As such, the president states that “e-gates” (electronic, self-service border control systems) as well as e-visas will be common fixtures in airports.
President Marcos also emphasized the move towards “experiential tourism,” referring to a focus on food, culture, heritage, the arts, sports, and other similar aspects of the country’s tourism that fully immerse visitors. “Filipino creativity and ingenuity will enliven and unlock the untapped potential of these new facets of Philippine tourism,” he expresses.
Banner photo via Instagram @bongbongmarcos.
.jpg){kind=link}
