SONA 2025 and a ‘classless’ society

Yesterday, President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. delivered his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA).

- BIENVENIDO S. OPLAS, JR.

Since this column was submitted several hours before the SONA was held at 4 p.m. Monday, I have looked back on some of the President’s pronouncements in his last three SONAs, focusing on public finance and fiscal economics.

“Disbursements for 2022 to 2023 will be maintained at... P4.955 trillion and P5.086 trillion, respectively... P5.402 trillion or 20.7% of our GDP in 2024 to P7.712 trillion or 20.6% of GDP in 2028.” — First SONA, July 25, 2022

“The essential tax measures under our Medium-Term Fiscal Framework, such as... excise tax on single-use plastics, VAT on digital services, rationalization of mining fiscal regime, motor vehicle user’s charge/road user’s tax, military and uniformed personnel pension.” — Second SONA, July 24, 2023

“Tax and non-tax revenue collection has also become more efficient, in pace with our rejuvenated economy. Notably, for the past two years, our GOCCs have remitted dividends to the National Government with a combined tally exceeding their contributions in 2022.” — Third SONA, July 22, 2024

I checked on the fiscal performance from 2022-2024, then the fiscal targets for 2025-2028. Actual disbursements were P5.16 trillion in 2022, P5.34 trillion in 2023, and P5.92 trillion in 2024. The disbursement targets are P6.08 trillion in 2025, then P6.63 trillion in 2026, P6.97 trillion in 2027 and P7.47 trillion in 2028.

This means that government has been overspending or overshooting its targets in disbursements since 2022 that will continue until 2028.