As the whole nation looks forward to President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 26, Deputy Speaker Bro. Eddie Villanueva of Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC) Partylist outlines three major expectations he wishes for Filipinos to hear from the president’s final yearly address.

“The Filipino people deserve at least these top three updates from the president’s final SONA. First, a step-by-step pathway to freedom from pandemic hunger and unemployment. Second, a detailed plan on vaccine roll out acceleration. And third, an explanation on why billions worth of ‘ayuda’ from Bayanihan 2 was unspent,” Villanueva said.

For the CIBAC lawmaker’s top 1 concern of a concrete “pathway to freedom” from pandemic-related hunger and unemployment, he cited the SWS survey conducted between April 8 and May 2, which indicated that there were 12.2 million jobless adults in May 2021—only a few hundred thousand less than in November 2020.

“The survey shows that only 17 percent of Filipino families rate themselves as ‘hindi mahirap’ or not poor, while 49 percent rate themselves as “mahirap” or poor, and 33 percent rated themselves as somewhere in between. Our people are suffering. The president’s last SONA is a golden opportunity for him to assure the public that there is a plan and government is ready to take them through a step-by-step pathway to freedom,” he said.

The same study also finds that 16.8 percent of Filipino families or around 4.2 million families experience involuntary hunger or having no access to sufficient food at least once in the past three months. The data is slightly worse than the 16 percent recorded in November 2020.

“CIBAC has submitted bills that should help alleviate the suffering of our people. Among them are House Bill 3219 – An Act providing protection to freelancers; House Bill 6004 – An Act strengthening access to credit of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs); House Bill 6660 – An Act granting hazard pay to workers in critical industries during a state of calamity or emergency or public health emergency; House Bill 9072 – An Act providing for a free annual medical check-up for Filipinos and appropriating funds therefor; and House Bill 8259 – An Act providing income tax relief to medical frontliners for taxable year 2020,” Villanueva added. “We hope that with the president’s support, we can pass these measures into law swiftly and without any further delay because time is of the essence,” Villanueva said.

For his top 2 SONA “wish,” the CIBAC solon exhorted government to hasten its vaccine roll out.

“I laud the IATF for fully vaccinating at least 5 million Filipinos. Nonetheless, let us not rest on our laurels. There are still 100 million Filipinos in need of the vaccine. Let us continue to be on our toes as the challenge of achieving the target 500,000 daily doses continues to be unattained. The coming SONA is the perfect moment for the president to discuss this,” said Villanueva.

National Task Force Deputy Chief Implementer Vince Dizon said Thursday that the IATF continues to be hard at work in achieving the target as the National Capital Region (NCR) surpassed its daily vaccination target of 120,000 with around 130,000 to 150,000 vaccinations daily.

Finally, the CIBAC representative urged President Duterte to explain to the public why Bayanihan 2, the law that allocated P165.5 billion for pandemic response, lapsed with P18.4 billion in unspent funds.

“Congressmen and senators worked hard for Bayanihan 2 to be passed. It makes us wonder why, if the funds are truly urgently needed for such a critical time as during this pandemic, there were billions unutilized. The only logical conclusion is that some high-ranking officials must be neglecting their duty to the people. As we say in Tagalog, may natutulog sa pansitan,” Villanueva pointed out.

“Every unspent fund from Bayanihan 2 represents a medical frontliner deprived of benefits, a student deprived of online learning materials, an entrepreneur deprived of urgent financial assistance to feed his family. Those responsible for these unspent billions must be reprimanded during SONA, so that the people will feel that government is on their side,” he added.