Manila, Philippines – Over the past decade, the arrival of guests at the Philippines’ annual State of the Nation Address has become akin to a Hollywood premiere.
Lawmakers and officials sport flashy ensembles and gush about their designers as they enter the halls of Congress to hear the president’s report.
Lawmakers and opposition figures often took advantage of the occasion to brandish dissident slogans and images on their clothing.
But before President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s third speech on Monday, the Chamber of Deputies banned any such attire.
“It is not a day of protest,” Chamber Secretary General Reginald Velasco, who is in charge of enforcing Chamber orders and decisions, told reporters earlier this month.
As Marcos Jr gives his speech, tens of thousands of protesters are expected to march on Congress in torrential July rains.
Around 22,000 police officers are being deployed to keep protesters away from parliament.
While Marcos Jr. is expected to praise the progress he has made in implementing an economic agenda focused on building infrastructure and attracting foreign investment, the protests are taking place against a backdrop of growing public discontent over inflation and slow wage growth.
In an opinion poll released by Pulse Asia Research earlier this month, 72 percent of Filipinos said controlling the rising cost of basic goods should be the government’s number one priority, ahead of low wages, poverty and unemployment.
In the same survey, Marcos Jr’s confidence index fell five percentage points compared to March, to 52 percent.
The address itself has also attracted criticism due to its cost.
The government has set aside 20 million Philippine pesos ($342,000) for the preparations, which include food for more than 2,000 guests, the highest amount ever recorded in a State of the Nation address.
Renato Reyes Jr, from BAYAN, the activist coalition leading the protests, criticized the “deaf ostentation” of the event.
“The true State of the Nation is not what is said on that stage, but what is felt on the streets, from the point of view of ordinary people,” Reyes told Al Jazeera.
Marcos Jr highlighted infrastructure spending and foreign investment as the main levers to boost the economy.
He praised his administration’s track record of launching 185 flagship infrastructure projects worth $162 billion and securing foreign investment pledges worth $14.2 billion.
He highlighted the International Monetary Fund’s economic growth projections for 2024 and 2025 – of 6% and 6.2%, respectively – which are significantly higher than those of neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia.
Economic analysts gave Marcos Jr a mixed scorecard.
“The Marcos administration acted quickly and I believe we are off to a strong start over the past two years,” National Economic Development Authority head Arsenio Balisacan said last week.
On the other hand, the Makati Business Club last week called for the acceleration of reforms in skills development, governance and energy infrastructure to “turn these investment promises into [a] reality”.
The Ibon Foundation, a think tank, has argued that the economic metrics promoted by the government tend to be misleading, with higher spending on infrastructure and foreign investment coinciding with the decline of the manufacturing industry to its lowest level in 75 years, from 18% of gross domestic product (GDP).
Marcos Jr’s policies are “making business groups profitable, but they are not producing broad-based national development,” Sonny Africa, Ibon’s executive director, told Al Jazeera.
Africa added that the “gross measure of state economic activity says nothing about how the gains from that activity are distributed, which is why more direct measures of poverty and hunger are so important.”
This month, the Social Meteorological Station, an independent polling group, reported that the self-assessed poverty level reached 58 percent, a 12-point jump from March, representing an additional 3.1 million families, a maximum in 16 years.
“The Marcos Jr administration excessively exaggerates economic growth to divert attention from more direct measures of people’s well-being, which clearly show the increase in poverty and hunger,” said Africa.
Although the year-to-date inflation rate of 3.5 percent is within the government’s target of 2-4 percent, workers have been clamoring for higher wage increases.
Weeks before the State of the Nation address, Marcos Jr approved a 35 peso ($0.60) increase in the daily minimum wage in Metro Manila.
The Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU, May Day Movement), an umbrella union, criticized the rise as an “insult”.
“Workers need decent wages. What they give us is change that is not even enough for a kilo of rice,” Jerome Adonis, general secretary of the KMU, told Al Jazeera.
Marcos Jr also faces political risks following the collapse of his alliance with Vice President Sara Duterte, who last month resigned from her posts as education secretary and vice-chairman of an anti-insurgency task force.
Duterte, daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, will be absent from Marcos Jr’s speech following the disintegration of the pact between the Philippines’ two most powerful political clans.
Temario Rivera, a professor at the University of the Philippines, said the union was doomed from the start due to each clan’s “competing strategic interests to dominate.”
Rivera said former President Rodrigo Duterte always believed his daughter would be a better leader than Marcos Jr.
In his speech, Marcos Jr, who did not comment on Duterte’s decision to leave the Cabinet except to say that it was his decision, is unlikely to address the growing rivalry with his family.
Meanwhile, human rights group Karapatan lamented the way previous State of the Nation addresses did not mention human rights issues.
The University of the Philippines’ Dahas Project, which monitors the war on drugs, recorded 712 drug-related murders committed by state agents and hired killers under Marcos Jr., despite the president’s pledge to make it “bloodless ” his predecessor’s deadly campaign against drug traffickers.
Last May, Marcos Jr ordered the creation of a “super body” for the protection of human rights “to sustain and improve the achievements” achieved under the Joint United Nations Program for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.
Cristina Palabay of Karapatan said expecting Marcos Jr to seriously address human rights issues this year would be a “fool’s errand.”
Marcos Jr likes to project a “deodorized image to the international community while deliberately covering up the situation,” Palabay told Al Jazeera.
The Duterte and Marcos clans have also diverged in international alliances, with the former maintaining friendly ties with China and the latter welcoming a greater US military presence in the archipelago.
In his speech, Marcos Jr is expected to reiterate support for the United States’ involvement in the Philippines’ territorial dispute with China in the South China Sea.
Duterte’s side, by contrast, refused to condemn China’s expansive territorial claims or aggressive actions against Philippine ships.
U.S. and Philippine officials are scheduled to meet on July 30 to discuss the pending General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), a pact that would increase intelligence sharing between the parties.
Despite the divide between the two weakening their political foundations, Rivera said each camp still enjoys strong support from their respective foreign allies.
Rivera said Marcos Jr has the stronger hand overall because “the local political culture deepened by the conflict in the West Philippine Sea and controversies linked to the activities of some Chinese nationals work against the Dutertes.”
Marcos Jr emphasizes the traditionally strong pro-US sentiment instilled during the colonial period “by facilitating a largely US-led military alliance in response,” Rivera said.
This story originally appeared on Aljazeera.com read the full story
