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Based on monitoring by the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has reached only 14 percent of its target beneficiaries for distribution of Certificate of Condonation with Release of Mortgage (COCROM), covering six percent of total registered farmers.
Inside Batasan, Marcos Jr. identified accomplishments in infrastructure, health care, and food subsidy. But activists said that the speech was marked more by omissions than solutions.
“There was no mention of the elephant in the room—the corruption and impunity,” said Renato Reyes Jr., president of BAYAN.
Promises and so-called achievements filled the one hour and eleven minutes speech of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 28, Monday. What are the critical issues did he miss to address?
For think tank group Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), Marcos Jr’s first half is a “period marked by deepening socio-economic inequality, persistent political patronage, and intensifying geopolitical entanglements that undermine Philippine sovereignty.”
“What’s in place is essentially a de facto martial law, with bombings, forced evacuations, harassment, and intimidation. This is not mere military presence; it is systematic repression.”
People Surge, a national alliance of disaster survivors, said that many affected communities remain without housing, livelihood, or sustained support.
"The Marcos Jr. administration is clinging to a failed and anti-farmer policy of rice importation. It is time to repeal the Rice Liberalization Law, break up the rice trading monopoly, and implement a genuine program for food self-sufficiency."
Under the SPLIT project funded by the World Bank, no actual new land distribution takes place. Former Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano said that there are still more than 500,000 hectares of agricultural land undistributed.
“There’s been so much Western influence, especially with tourism and migrants coming in. Our language is changing—kids speak English, Cebuano—it’s all mixed now. But the deeper, ancestral influence is still there. I came from Mamanwa. I want that to be recognized again.”
Some come to surf or recover, drawn to Siargao’s beauty and relative peace. But their presence, often marked by aggressive behavior, loud partying, and a disregard for local customs, has begun to unsettle the community.
“Why is it that when the people demand accountability, our officials move so slowly? Now, this Supreme Court decision will only further delay our call for accountability.”
“In Southern Tagalog, farmers are already burdened by lost harvests and incomes. The people are not just struggling, they are being abandoned.”
Days ahead of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA), progressive organizations under the banner of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan)-Panay held a press conference Friday, July 25, denouncing what they called worsening economic and social conditions under the current administration.
“It is infuriating that unrepentant plunderers occupying high positions in government can maneuver and invoke bureaucratic rules and technicalities to escape punishment, even as they continue to commit serious crimes against the Filipino people,”
“These funds exist for emergencies like this. The government’s failure to release them quickly and transparently is costing lives and livelihood,”
Across the Philippines, many communities are losing their livelihoods and homes in the name of so-called development projects causing environmental destruction. With Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s presidency already at the halfway mark, the state of the Philippine environment is caught between lofty climate pledges and worsening ecological destruction.
Three years into the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the human rights situation in the Philippines is still bad.
"We must not allow impunity to trump accountability."
"If the ‘iron-clad’ alliance comes with selling out the [Philippine] economy in exchange for ‘military aid’, then that’s not really an ‘alliance’ and that’s not really ‘aid’. That’s neocolonialism.”
In a statement, Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said that the bill is “thoroughly self-serving and is a slap in the face of the tens of thousands of victims of Duterte's drug war as well as those who suffered other injustices committed under his regime.”
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