3rd SONA ‘reformatted’ to allow PRRD to speak more freely

FILE: As directed by the President in his first two SONAs, the Office of the Cabinet Secretary has streamlined the bureaucracy by rationalizing it to a cluster system, as embodied under Executive Order (EO) No. 43, series of 2011. (SIMEON CELI JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)

MANILA — A three-part series of pre-State of the Nation Address (SONA) forum kicked off on Friday as part of a “reformatted” 2018 SONA, a Palace official said.

“For his third State of the Nation Address this 2018, we have reformatted this to allow the President to speak more freely on the matters that he would like to share to the people,” Cabinet Secretary Jun Evasco said in his speech during the first forum held at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

As directed by the President in his first two SONAs, the Office of the Cabinet Secretary has streamlined the bureaucracy by rationalizing it to a cluster system, as embodied under Executive Order (EO) No. 43, series of 2011.

In 2017, Duterte signed EO No. 24 reorganizing the Cabinet cluster system to make it more responsive to the key priorities of his administration.

Under the new cluster system, the bureaucracy has been divided into six clusters — Human Development and Poverty Reduction; Economic Development; Infrastructure; Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation; Security, Justice, and Peace; and Participatory Governance.

Evasco said the Participatory Governance Cluster has been renamed from the Good Governance and Anti-Corruption Cluster due to massive support from grassroots, organizations and civil society.

“The Participatory Governance Cluster effectively operationalized the whole-of-nation approach beyond rhetoric, as this became the window for civil society participation,” he said.

The Economic Development Cluster (EDC) and Infrastructure Cluster (IC) highlighted their accomplishments in the opening salvo of the pre-SONA forum entitled, “Tatak ng Pagbabago: Tatak ng Pagunlad”.

“All the six clusters were required to come up with their ‘good governance’ framework as a cross cutting theme,” Evasco said.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III as EDC chairperson, and Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar, chair of IC, presented the policies, programs and projects implemented during the second year of the Duterte administration.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, Secretariat Head of the Economic and Infrastructure Clusters, also talked about the country’s economic performance.

The pre-SONA forum is a collaborative effort of the Office of the President, Office of the Executive Secretary, Office of the Special Assistant to the President, Presidential Management Staff, Presidential Communications Operations Office, and Office of the Cabinet Secretary.

“As the President’s partners in ensuring that real change will happen and will truly benefit the people, we request your continued support, collaboration and participation in the administration’s whole-of-nation approach towards a better Philippines for the Filipinos,” Evasco said.

On Thursday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the third SONA scheduled on July 23 will focus, not only on the accomplishments of the Duterte administration for the past two years, but will also delivered “straight from the heart” of the President.

The forum will resume on July 11 with “Tatak ng Malasakit at Pagkakaisa”, featuring the Participatory Governance and Human Development and Poverty Reduction Clusters.

The third part of the series is set on July 18 with “Tatak ng Katatagan”, to be led by the Climate Change Adaptation, Mitigation and Disaster Risk Resiliency and the Security, Justice and Peace clusters.