President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday admitted the lack of progress in his administration's programs in the first half of his term affected election results in the midterm polls held last week.

In a video podcast interview with Anthony Taberna, Marcos admitted his administration was slow in delivering projects that would make Filiipinos' lives easier.

''They have many reasons why these were not done. People are not interested in that. When will these be done? When will we feel it? You can't blame people. They are right,'' Marcos said. ''That's actually the lesson we learned from this election. Don't explain it to us anymore. Just do it.''

"I realized that we did not put a lot of attention on the small things, those that make the daily life of people easier. The line in the train, traffic, those kinds of things, to make people's lives easier," Marcos said.

The administration's coalition was not able to dominate the senatorial race in the May 12 midterm elections. settling for a 5-5 tie with Vice President Sara Duterte's PDP-Laban, with the remaining two slots taken by returning Senators Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan.

Marcos also expressed his frustration in not being able to implement his proposed projects in the past three years due to bureaucracy.

"A lot of people are too careful. It's okay to be careful. It's okay to have checks and balances, but it shouldn't be a paralysis in bureaucracy," Marcos explained.

When asked about the delay in the 20-peso-per-kilo rice project, Marcos said that the delay was due to a lack of production.

"In 2022, 2023 - we couldn't do it. Why? The key there is production. That's why we keep building irrigation. We made a lot of dams. We gave a lot of machinery... Why did we provide help in production just now? Because in the Philippines, officials are spoiled. We just import and import."

Marcos is in the middle of his six-year term. The 20-peso-per-kilo rice program sold to indigent Filipinos in Kadiwa stores and local markets started its implementation after the May 12 elections. Yzabela Velez-White/DMS