Bongbong said, “We’re going to space!” Very exciting. You hear “space,” you think Filipino astronauts. Satellites. Mission control. Huge rockets. Somebody counting backward. Ten. Nine. Eight.

Then you read the technical paper; always read the technical paper. The engineers are honest. They don’t call it “space.” They call it a demo flight.

Because space begins 100 kilometers up. The plan says at least five. Airlines fly much higher. Mount Everest is higher. From Makati, the rocket wouldn’t even make it to Cubao.

But the speech? Magnificent. If the speech burned fuel, we’re already on Mars.

Now let this not be a misunderstanding. We love rockets, engineers. Especially engineers who don’t exaggerate.

Already, Claire Castro: “Huwag na silang maging balakid sa ninanais ng Pangulo.”

Balakid? A hindrance?

Madam. We’re not blocking the President’s dream. Gravity is. We asked a simple question. Why this rocket? What problem will it solve? What is the mission? The question was about the rocket. The answer was about the President.

We’ve already been to space, by the way. Diwata got there years ago. Filipino satellites have already orbited the earth.

What we have not done is launch our own rocket from here. “We have to start somewhere.”

Then call it a start! Say demo flight. Say locally developed payload. Testing domestic propellant supply. Developing Filipino expertise in rocket tech. Testing safety and authorization procedures.

Those are serious beginnings. They are how a country learns to launch. But none of them sounds quite as magnificent as: “Yes, we are sending our rocket to space!”

Promise today, cut the ribbon tomorrow, deliver eventually. Preferably under somebody else’s presidency. The easiest projects to announce are the ones you’ll never have to finish.

Still everybody clapped. The engineers must have been praying. “Please don’t clap too hard.”

The speech has already reached orbit. Now the engineers have to rescue it.

And suppose the rocket flies six kilometers. Technically? Success. The demonstration did exactly what it promised. Politically? People heard “space.”

The engineers can succeed 100 percent and still miss the promise by 95 kilometers.

That’s not fair to the engineers. Being told “Mahiya naman kayo!” For shame!

Science is allowed to fail. That’s why scientists test. Because they don’t know. That’s why speeches should wait.

What’s worrying is, when “space” means at least five kilometers, what does Bongbong’s “P500 billion nationwide flood control” mean? What does “food security” mean? “Completed?”

The thing with Bongbong is: his favorite projects are either on the horizon or deep underground.

“Booming space industry” above, pipes below.

A rocket is politically perfect. It goes up. Very important. When something goes up, nobody is looking down. Nobody asks about the floods. The roads. Nobody asks whether the project actually works. Everybody in Batasan was already in space.

That’s backward. We keep asking for speeches to support bridges. Bridges are supposed to do the supporting.