In the wake of President Marcos’ State of the Nation Address, where national priorities were laid out with confidence and clarity, I felt compelled to reflect on a different but equally revealing dimension of public life — the personal wishes, habits, and quiet desires of the officials who shape our country.
Beyond the policies and promises heard at the rostrum, there exists a parallel universe of everyday expectations, subtle preferences, and unspoken demands that color how leaders behave and how institutions function. It is in this spirit of candid observation — not criticism, but illumination — that this author turns to enumerate the familiar wants and likes of officials and the people whose personalities often speak louder than their platforms.
- Offer amnesty for corrupt politicians, downgrading jail sentences to house arrest and community service in exchange for full restitution, resignation, and a lifetime ban from public office, including family to the 4th degree of consanguinity and affinity.
- Implement Integrity Software throughout the entire government bureaucracy, local to national, to track and monitor, from ideation to inception, insertion, bidding and awards, execution, completion, delivery, procurement, payroll, licensing and permitting, identifying the responsible, the accountable, the consulted and the informed.
- The entire Filipino diaspora must be granted ownership of their own bank – the Overseas Filipino Bank – this has the potential of unleashing Filipino Direct Investment – otherwise exploited by host country banks. OFB will enable overseas Filipinos to keep profits from their economic engagement with the Philippine economy part of their own posterity.
- Address temporary energy shocks by shifting diesel costs to gasoline. Government revenue is shielded. Car owners who own gasoline cars, logically, are better off than those using public transportation. Keeping diesel costs low benefits all, including those driving gasoline cars. Transportation costs for food and basic goods remain the same.
- Allow farmers and fisherfolk to control the entire supply chain from farm to table.
- Widen electricity subsidies from 200kW to 400kW and increase electricity rates for over 400kW
- Strive for free rail rides
- Tax exemption to P500K transfer forgone taxes to the rich making P10M annually.
- Revise National Tax allotment from population and land area to local GDP
- Mandate biodegradable sachet packaging
- Crop insurance rationalization to commence coverage immediately after planting
- MALAMPAYA and other future energy service contracts must include patrimony ceded to the national treasury
- End end-of-contract (ENDO) Jobs wherever possible
- Government match for SSS, GSIS, PAG-IBIG, PHILHEALTH contributions
- Sponsor at least 1,000 Iskolar ng Bayan in STEM courses in the best universities abroad and commit venture capital for patentable discoveries
- Negotiate scholarships abroad, including language courses while in high school, towards committed employment by host countries
- Free PhilHealth membership for all OFWs and families
- Pax Silica should address and pay for waste disposal issues, including requiring investors to provide for water, energy, and waste disposal, as well as alternative housing for displaced persons.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Crispin Fernandez advocates for overseas Filipinos, public health, transformative political change, and patriotic economics. He is also a community organizer, leader, and freelance writer.
