Marcos Delivers Fifth SONA as Philippine Economy Slows and Corruption Anger Grows

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is set to deliver his fifth State of the Nation Address on Monday, July 27, at what multiple surveys describe as the toughest moment of his presidency so far.

The backdrop is not good. Economic growth slowed to 4.4% for all of 2025 and then dropped further to 2.6% in the first quarter of 2026, according to Tribune. That is the weakest quarterly expansion since the pandemic. Inflation, which had cooled to 1.7% in 2025, jumped back up to 6.4% in June 2026 despite government fuel price rollbacks, Tribune reported. Economists cited by the outlet warned that rising rates paired with slowing growth raises the risk of stagflation, and that an approaching El Niño could push food prices higher still.

Marcos inherited an economy that grew 7.6% in 2022 on a post-pandemic rebound. In 2025, momentum stalled after a flood-control corruption scandal erupted, according to Tribune, which reported the scandal weakened investor confidence and disrupted public infrastructure spending. The Philippine Stock Exchange Index closed 2025 at a 12-year low of 6,052.92 before recovering to 6,281.01, still below where it ended in both 2023 and 2024.

What Filipinos actually want to hear

A nationwide EON x Tangere survey, conducted July 7 to 10 among 1,200 adults with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.96 percentage points, found that 48% of respondents wanted Marcos to present solutions to national problems in this SONA, not a rundown of accomplishments. Only 22% said they mainly wanted to hear about what the administration has already achieved, according to BusinessWorld.

EON Group President and COO Malyn Molina said the results show Filipinos are also looking for accountability on past promises, not just new ones. Roughly 46% of respondents said commitments made in previous SONAs have gone unfulfilled, and only 31% expressed confidence the government would deliver on whatever gets announced this year.

Corruption ranks high on the list of demands. A Stratbase Group-commissioned Pulse Asia survey, conducted June 28 to July 3 and released July 25, found 28% of respondents want government corruption reduced or eliminated, up from 26% in March, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. A separate Pulse Asia survey found 29.8% of Filipinos specifically want Marcos to address corruption tied to the flood-control projects controversy in his address, ahead of concerns about affordable basic goods at 18.7%.

Food affordability remains the single biggest priority in raw numbers: 30% of Stratbase survey respondents named making staples like rice, meat and fish more affordable as the government's top job. Stratbase Group president Victor Andres "Dindo" Manhit said the surveys show these concerns are interconnected expectations of effective governance.

The jobs and wages picture

Unemployment sits at 4.8%, or about 2.5 million Filipinos, according to Philippine Statistics Authority data cited by Tribune. That is an improvement over pandemic-era numbers, but Tribune reported economists warn slower growth will make quality job creation harder going forward.

Labor groups are not waiting for the government to figure it out. Federation of Free Workers National President and Nagkaisa Labor Coalition Chairman Jose Sonny G. Matula said ahead of the address that "a government cannot claim success while the very workers who create the nation's wealth remain poor," according to BusinessWorld. His coalition is pushing for a nationwide 200-peso wage increase and passage of House Bill No. 6572, the POWERR bill, which would extend labor protections to platform workers.

That demand lands against a real, if modest, wage move already underway. Minimum wage workers in Metro Manila received the first tranche of an 85-peso wage increase on Saturday, July 25, raising the daily minimum wage to 755 pesos, with a second tranche scheduled for January 2027, BusinessWorld reported.

Poverty progress, currency pressure

Poverty incidence fell to 15.5% in 2023 from 18.1% in 2021, according to Tribune's account of government data, real progress even as millions remain exposed to swings in food, transport and energy costs. The peso has weakened from 56.12 to the dollar at the end of 2022, a slide Tribune tied partly to the broader economic strain, though the outlet's figures cut off before giving a current exchange rate.

Tribune also flagged an external pressure point: the Philippines' reliance on oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, which it said has left the country exposed to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and contributed to the inflation rebound despite domestic fuel rollbacks.

Filipinos are not asking for a victory lap. They are asking whether the last two years of this administration will produce results they can measure at the market, at work and in their paychecks, rather than results measured only in speeches.