PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) came at a critical point in his administration. With only two years remaining in his term, the speech was no longer an opportunity to present new aspirations. It was also a moment to account for what had been accomplished, acknowledge shortfalls and explain what could still realistically be completed before 2028.
The 2026 SONA covered a wide range of concerns: from the investigation of the scandalous flood control projects to the conflict in the Middle East, the energy and food security, assistance to affected workers and sectors from transportation and agriculture, to education, health care, infrastructure and national sovereignty.
What struck me was not the absence of programs, but their sheer number. However, an abundance of government activity does not automatically translate into a clear development strategy.
A long list of programs may tell us what the government is doing, but it does not always explain why these particular programs were selected, how they relate to one another, or whether the country is moving closer to its goals.
This is where a development framework becomes indispensable. The proper reference is the Philippine Development Plan 2023–2028, the administration’s official road map for economic and social transformation, centered on job creation, poverty reduction and building a prosperous, inclusive, resilient society.
Measured against the plan’s pillars, the 2026 SONA can generally be considered aligned. Discussions on school feeding, classroom construction, technical-vocational education and artificial intelligence training correspond with the plan’s education goals.
Health care initiatives — including PhilHealth expansion and zero-balance billing — align with its human development objectives.
Programs addressing fuel prices, transportation costs, and support for vulnerable households and small businesses fall under the plan’s pillar of protecting purchasing power.
Agriculture, trade, industry, infrastructure and disaster-resilience initiatives likewise map onto the plan’s remaining pillars.
Opportunity
Therefore, the concern is not that the SONA was detached from the road map — much of it can be situated within the plan. The opportunity instead lies in making that alignment visible to the Filipino people.
The SONA presented many programs that could be mapped to the plan, but the public was largely left to make that connection on its own. This is alignment by implication — government programs happening to fall under the same general subject areas as the development plan.
Alignment by design would instead mean the government clearly states the national objective, identifies the target, reports the actual result, explains any variance and presents corrective measures.
For instance, knowing that over 16,000 classrooms will be built through public-private partnerships is useful, but understanding its significance requires knowing the total classroom shortage, the annual target and the remaining gap.
Similarly, hearing that 200 power projects are being monitored, representing nearly 10,000 megawatts, means little without understanding the effect on electricity prices and energy import dependence.
And while billions in facilitated investments are encouraging, the more important questions are how many projects became operational, how many quality jobs were created, and whether these investments reached beyond Metro Manila.
The SONA’s estimate of 400,000 jobs from Green Lane investments should, in future reports, distinguish between projected and actually created jobs.
Government communication must move beyond inputs and announcements toward outcomes. The amount spent is an input. The number of projects launched is an output. The improvement in people’s lives is the outcome.
The Constitution requires the president to address Congress annually, but the SONA should function as more than ceremony — it should be the country’s annual self-audit.
The plan already provides the basis for this: a monitoring framework with indicators, interim targets and an annual socioeconomic report, plus public dashboards for accountability.
The machinery exists; what’s needed is to bring it into the SONA itself. Every major section could follow a simple sequence: What was our objective? Where did we begin? Where are we now? Why are we ahead or behind? Who is accountable?
Without such a framework, government actions appear fragmented — a railway becomes just another railway, a scholarship just another scholarship.
With one, the railway becomes part of a strategy to cut logistics costs, and the scholarship becomes part of closing skills gaps.
The president’s emphasis on accountability in the flood control scandal — reporting investigations, prosecutions and asset recovery — was among the SONA’s strongest portions. But its success will depend on resolved cases and prevented recurrence, not the strength of the declaration.
As the administration enters its final two years, the next SONA should tell us not just what has started, but what has been completed, what has changed, and what remains unfinished.
The true state of the nation must be measured by whether Filipino families are more secure, children are learning better, and communities are more resilient — not by the length of the speech or the number of programs announced.
Kay Calpo Lugtu is the chief operating officer of Hungry Workhorse, a digital and culture transformation firm.
