A rising tide must raise all ships. I think that is the core of the President’s message this afternoon. He wants any economic improvement to be enjoyed by all. And he has prescribed the ways by which wealth created can be dispersed.

Tama ang pinahiwatig ng Pangulo na ang mahirap ang siyang unang dapat makatikim ng biyaya at hindi binabalatuhan na lamang ng tira-tira. He is right in saying that the poor must be the priority of progress and not its postscript.

It is now up to Congress to respond to his challenge of creating the mechanism by which economic gains will be immediately felt by those who need it most and not something that trickle down to the poor who usually enjoy it last.

It is for this reason that we are looking forward to the examination of the national budget for 2014 because that is one best tool in making growth inclusive.

We are confident that his vision of inclusive growth is translated into budget initiatives, in terms, for example, of jobs to be created by government spending and economic opportunities to be opened up by new infrastructure.

Through the CCT, we have placed a large number of the poor under welfare. But the way for relief to be permanent is to put them to work. The SONA has given us insights on how it can be done.

In his SONA this year, the President has authored the comprehensive manual on how to achieve inclusive growth.

It is a manual brimming with details, from income-increasing inter-cropping schemes to refrigerating lapu-lapu, from the number of houses to be built to where flood control projects will be constructed, from entitlements to be reformed to laws to be passed.