Protests against Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s fifth SONA, or state of the nation address, on July 27 are now set. On that day, the state has prepared 20,000 police to block rallyists from getting near Congress, where Marcos is certain to brag about his regime’s supposed “victories”.

In recent days, various groups exposed the true condition of the people amid a severe economic crisis. National democratic organizations under the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) emphasized that Marcos’ rule not only inflicted suffering on Filipinos; he has also endangered the people with his subservience to US imperialism and kowtowing to its president, Donald Trump. According to Bayan, Marcos has bound the country even more tightly to US policies and dragged the people into imperialist tensions between the US and China.

It condemned the regime’s silence over the US attack on Iran, which severely disrupted the oil supply and sent prices surging across nearly all commodities worldwide. This impact is severe on the Filipino people, who are already suffering from soaring prices of basic goods and service fees, and from low-pegged wages and salaries. They dismissed Marcos’ aid response as paltry and limited. This while he gave oil firms and private utility companies the freedom raise charges for basic services.

Meanwhile, the Senate impeachment trial of Sara Duterte has already started. Senators openly clashed since the first day. The majority bloc are pushing the agenda of the Marcos faction of stopping Duterte from running in 2028, while the minority bloc continue to do everything to delay, derail, and absolve Duterte of her crimes. People watch their clash hoping to see and hear the evidences of Duterte’s guilt, and witness her get convicted for corruption and betrayal of public trust.

The group concurrently continues to hold Marcos accountable as the top figure in corruption through botched and ghost flood control projects, which he supposedly exposed in his previous SONA.