PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in his 2nd State of the Nation Address (SONA) avoided the most critical foreign policy issue on which the nation's strategic viability and prosperity depends: relations with the superpowers, according to a Manila-based think tank.

'Instead, PBBM President Bongbong Marcos) sneaks in his real allegiance declaring in his speech his 'defense of a rules-based international order' -- the code name for US hegemony and perpetual war,' Herman Tiu Laurel of the Asian Century Philippines Strategic Studies told The Manila Times on Monday in reaction to President Marcos' SONA. 'This portends doom and gloom for the future of the Philippines.'