By Manila 3rd District Rep. Joel Chua
The State of the Nation Address (Sona) is much like a report card. The President flexed his administration’s accomplishments.
Understandable, because it is his third Sona. He has had two full years into his six-year term. There should be a report card.
This time around, the President did not explicitly ask Congress to do things.
But implicitly, or reading between the lines, the President was asking Congress to do more because he said we have been able to do all these things in just two years. Much more and much better should be the focus therefore of the next few years of the administration.
If you noticed, the Sona started with the everyday survival concerns of Filipinos: food.
More can be done to temper inflation. Directly deal with market inefficiencies like lack of transparency and accountability.
Establish an electronic commodity market that is better than the WESM and the Philippine Stock Exchange.
Use QR tagging, infrared tagging, and genetic profiling of rice imports and local harvests.
Rollout mobile apps that connect local farmers to retailers.
Then the Sona proceeded to build momentum with the accomplishments and policies.
Until the high note of banning Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogos) and ordering the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) to wind down the operations starting by the end of this year.
The President gave Pagcor — and indirectly, all the current Pogos — six months to clean up the entire Pogo mess.
The keywords are actually WIND DOWN. Wind down is another way to say phaseout. That is a realistic goal because the packing up will take time. I believe the phaseout must be quick. The President gave Pagcor six months.
But the Pogos, starting yesterday already know they are no longer welcome here in the Philippines.
So some Pogos, on their own, will start their phaseout. Six months is enough time for them to gradually shutdown, until December, they will have completely shut down.
The first to go will be the money they have squeezed out of their victims. Money is easy to transfer.
Next will be the top executives who are foreigners. Next will be the phaseout of contracts.
The President is effectively reversing the failed pro-Pogo policy of the previous administration. It was really a failure because it spawned a lot of evil and crimes.
The Sona is the eviction notice against all the Pogos -- licensed and illegal.
Most importantly, the President heeded the clamor of the people who see the Pogos for what they really are evil rooted in money, greed and crime.
The Pogos that are still around by December will have to follow the new Pagcor policies phasing them out.
There should be no more Pogos by Jan. 1.
Any remaining Pogos after Dec. 31 should be the subject of law enforcement action.
The raids against unlicensed Pogos should continue because they are illegal. From July onward, more illegal Pogos should be raided, charged, prosecuted and tried in court.
Forensic audits should be done on all Pogos.
The President also used strong words against the previous administration’s war on drugs. Rightly so.
Everyone who masterminded and implemented that war on drugs must be arrested, charged, prosecuted, tried in court and imprisoned. All of them. They must pay for their crimes. All of them.