Marcos' flood control promise: Will SONA deliver after a year of scandals?

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is likely to be introducing revisions and tweaks to his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 27, aiming for a "perfect" speech, even up to an hour before delivery. This will be the penultimate SONA of his presidency. Officially an address to Congress, the SONA is effectively the President's report to the Filipino people. Marcos will speak to a nation unsettled, with net satisfaction towards him still in the red at -7 percentage points according to a June Social Weather Stations survey, an improvement from -15 in late March. Flood control and corruption are expected to be central themes. A late June to early July Pulse Asia Research survey revealed that corruption fighting was a top concern, with efforts to investigate and hold accountable those involved in the flood control projects scandal ranking a distant second (18.9%). This agenda was set by Marcos himself in his July 2025 SONA, where he vowed to pursue officials and contractors profiting from substandard or non-existent flood control projects. However, the actual follow-through, in terms of filing cases, has been inconsistent. A glaring absence of cases is against those closest to the Marcos administration. The Ombudsman announced in late July that former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, a cousin of the president, was a "central figure" in the corruption scheme, yet no case has been filed against him. Economically, inflation was at 6.4% in June, down from 6.8% in May. For the first six months of 2026, inflation averaged 4.8%, above the 2%-4% target range. Marcos acknowledged the need to navigate "external forces," potentially referring to global economic swings and conflicts, stating that adjustments made have been effective in helping people weather the storm. At 4 pm on July 27, a nation that has spent a year waiting for specifics on the flood-control promise will finally hear the President’s report. – Rappler.com