Is the Marcos administration shooting for the stars to appeal to the masses?
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has announced in his fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) that the Philippines is launching its first rocket to space. Who would have thought that the first orbital mission from the Philippines soil would be under the Marcos administration? Although a project this ambitious sounds promising, let us not forget the promises they have broken and their ignorance towards repeated concerns. It is disappointing how, compared to this project, these broken promises and problems that follow a cycle are less viable to fulfill.
To start off with this development, they will catapult a liquid-fueled sounding rocket in Cagayan next year, serving as a test launch before proceeding to a larger astronomical assignment. This type of rocket carries instruments designed to take measurements and conduct experiments during its brief flight.
The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) and Palace Press Officer Claire Castro confirmed in a press briefing that the Php13.53 billion collection goal for the first seven months this year was surpassed—accumulating Php2.013 trillion in tax revenue. While it is also Php102.6 billion higher from what the government collected last year during the same period, it does not signify that the Philippines should jump into higher stakes such as this. Perhaps, the administration should look into what is truly concerning the Filipinos to make the deducted amount from their income worth it and beneficial.
The pride of improving tax revenues should depend on how it was utilized. It should be about how it served the Filipinos.
Many people still struggle with problems that have persisted for decades. For example, the President said in the 2025 SONA that they aim to build at least 40,000 classrooms before his term ends. Schools in the country have been decade-long burdened with classroom backlogs and it is expected to get worse each year. By December 2025, Senator Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV raised his brows upon knowing that out of the 1,700 classrooms target for said year, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) was only able to complete 60 of the target number, deeming it as ‘unacceptable’.
Three years. The President only has three years left to fulfill his 40,000 classroom pledge. And they have only built nearly 22,000 since his presidency started.
Beyond the classrooms and into the adult world, it is not a secret that Filipinos have to risk their lives when they walk around the busy streets of the country. The sidewalks could only fit 2D characters, and clearly Filipinos are not such things. Safe, assuring, and organized— That is what sidewalks should be. But the Philippines decided to be a hostile environment towards civilians by hanging electric wires and building poles in the middle of a supposed space for people, forcing them onto the busy roads. If you are unfortunate, you might even encounter the lethal combination: having both cramped space for walking and successive electrical obstructions. This is one of the most unaddressed situations of Filipinos because what else can they do but tolerate it?
The traffic and public transportation does not make it any better. Rush hours in Manila are truly bothersome. This is caused by school hours, work schedules, and reliance on road-based transportation. Unlike most foreign countries, they have subways that deplete the chances of heavy traffic. The Philippines have the Light Rail Transits (LRT) and Mass Rail Transits (MRT), yet there is still massive congestion today.
A sounding rocket is beneficial and offers other opportunities aside from contributing to scientific innovation of the country. We would have experiences in conducting a launch from our own territory which is an advancement especially when we enter the growing market of orbital launches, as per the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA).However, in this economy, it seems out of touch to allocate a fraction of the public treasury considering that the Philippines has longstanding education and infrastructure commitments that remain unmet.
The point here is that the government is being too ambitious with rockets and space. As if blinded by the stars that they will utilize the taxpayers’ money to invest on space missions before their needs are to be satisfied. They are not completely ignorant of what the people need, but at this point, it seems very unrealistic to dream of doing space missions when the progression each year, on the Philippine soil, seems painfully slow. If the administration cannot provide meaningful and effective changes using the public treasury, then how would it be possible—assuring that something good comes back from projects that are still somehow out of reach?
It is as if the project just aims to make the current administration sound cool, hence risking it as another flashy announcement just so people would think that there is real development happening in the country, when in fact it is very stagnant.
