Top econ, infra execs address over 1-M Filipinos in first 2020 pre-SONA forum

July 15, 2020

The country’s top economic and infrastructure officials reported the accomplishments and plans of both the Economic Development Cluster (EDC) and Infrastructure Cluster (IC) to an audience of over one million Filipinos–tuning in online or via accredited media partners—during this year's first Pre-State of the Nation Address (Pre-SONA) forum last week.

Streamed live across multiple media platforms, the first Pre-SONA forum of the EDC and IC was held virtually because of the limitations set on mass gatherings as part of the government’s continued mobility restrictions to slow the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

The July 8 event set the record for the most highly-viewed Pre-SONA forum since President Duterte assumed office in 2016.

Titled “Tatak ng Pagbabago 2020” the Pre-SONA forums are a three-part series that feature key government policies and programs in greater detail in preparation for the 5th SONA of President Duterte later on July 27. The second part of Pre-SONA series resumes today featuring the Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cluster (HDPRC) and the Participatory Governance Cluster (PGC).

“The Pre-SONA forums are an annual series of events that the Duterte administration has been staging as part of its efforts to make governance more participatory and transparent to the public. While the SONA is the most important government speech every year, the pre-SONA events are a means for state agencies to report their respective accomplishments and plans in greater detail, and to provide broader context for the President’s upcoming SONA,” Finance Assistant Secretary Antonio Lambino II said.

“While organizing this year’s pre-SONA presented the government with challenges because of COVID-19 mobility restrictions, we also saw increased activity in digital spaces as an opportunity to reach out to more Filipinos in new ways.” Lambino, who is also the Department of Finance (DOF) spokesman and head of its Strategy, Economics and Results Group (SERG), added.

More than 90 government agencies livestreamed the three-hour program on their respective Facebook pages, and another 14 media organizations shared the feed on their social media sites. The event was also simulcast on six television networks and two radio stations.

“Broad interagency cooperation to reach more people through their channels made the event the most widely-covered Pre-SONA forum in Philippine history so far, resulting to more than 30 unique online news stories of a single event,” Lambino said.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar headlined the forum as cluster chairs.

Top officials who were present at the forum included Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno, Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua, Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon Lopez, Science and Technology Secretary Fortunato dela Peña, Agriculture Secretary William Dar, Budget and Management Secretary Wendel Avisado, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) Director-General Isidro Lapeña, Tourism Undersecretary Arturo Boncato, Education Undersecretary Alain Pascua and Information and Communications Technology Assistant Secretary Emmanuel Ray Caintic.

“Last year, the online coverage of the EDC-IC Pre-SONA forum garnered over 130,000 views. Last Wednesday (July 8), we reached more than 960,000 online viewers. In addition to online views, it is estimated that at least half a million Filipinos also watched the event on television via the live coverage of TV5, IBC 13, OneNews Channel, DZRH News TV, Central Luzon Television (CLTV), and PTV,"   Lambino said.

"We encourage all those who watched the EDC-IC Pre-SONA to tune in to the other cabinet clusters’ Pre-SONA events as well,” he added.

“The government’s efforts to make the pre-SONA more interactive this year was a practice that appears to have encouraged more people to participate in the event,” Lambino said, citing that “leading up to the forum, we sent out a call for netizens to submit their questions on how the government can best help Filipinos recover from the effects of the COVID-19 crisis," he said.

Lambino said, "Citizens posted videos of themselves on Facebook directing questions to their Cabinet secretaries. We featured several of them, and the concerned agencies were present so that these questions were properly answered by them. Other questions that were not featured live because of the limited time have been answered on another platform.”

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, he said that key government events, including Sulong Pilipinas--the Duterte administration’s annual stakeholder consultation event to gather actionable policy recommendations--were held via teleconferencing platforms.

“Although we had to learn and adapt to these new platforms very quickly, the government also sees opportunities in these online events to make our consultative activities more inclusive,” Lambino said.