President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. during his third State of the Nation Address on Monday, 22 July 2024. Screenshot from Presidential Communications Office Facebook page
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 23 July) – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has “failed to offer concrete solutions” to the problems affecting the Filipino people during his 3rd State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, a consumer group based in Davao Region said.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Ryan Amper, Davao Consumer Movement convenor, said that the president’s speech was “long on rhetoric but short on anything actionable,” giving him a rating of five out of 10.
Marcos spoke for almost an hour and a half before a crowd of 2,000, composed of congressmen, senators, officials members of the diplomatic corps, and other dignitaries during a joint session at the Session Hall of the House of Representatives, Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City.
He said the group was anticipating some concrete solutions from the president, particularly actions that the government will take to address soaring prices of rice and other basic commodities, but was dismayed to hear “generalities that offered no concrete solutions.”
He said Marcos did not even mention about how this administration would fulfill his campaign promise to bring the price of rice to P20 per kilo.
“We also find the points on power as lacking in clarity. It leaned more towards infrastructure, particularly interconnection and power generation, and while these are welcome, the pressing issue of the unreliability of a number of electric cooperatives in the country was not addressed,” he said.
Amper lamented that the president did not discuss how the government intends to help power consumers being serviced by Northern Davao Electric Cooperative.
He said power consumers within the franchise area of the electric cooperative continue to suffer from “poor power services and high power rates for a very long time.”
“There seems to be a disconnect between what the president knows or has been fed and what the true power situation is in many parts of the country. It is the same situation with Department of Energy Undersecretary Rowena L. Guevara who seems to think there is ample power in the Island Garden City of Samal despite the frequent blackouts in the area,” he said.
Amper said his group looks forward to the review of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001 as they believe that there is a need to amend the law “to keep up with the times and make it more relevant in the years to come.”
“We hope our lawmakers will take into consideration the need to review the laws and regulations governing electric cooperatives. One that would put emphasis on the needs of the consumers and not the needs of some electric cooperatives’ need to stay in power,” he said.
Marcos said that his administration has started reviewing EPIRA for possible amendments.
“Binabalikan at binubusisi nating muli ang EPIRA upang malaman kung angkop pa ba ito sa ating kasalukuyang sitwasyon, o napapanahon na, na ito ay amyendahan (We are going back and re-examining EPIRA to see if it is still appropriate for our current situation, or if it is time for it to be amended),” he said. (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
