"Why didn't the President mention these gut issues?"
"Why didn't the President mention these gut issues?"
When Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte won the presidency in 2016, he promised change. This resonated with the people. He vowed he would end the drug menace in three months. He also promised he would end criminality and corruption.
But the brutal campaign against illegal drugs has not ended.
More poor people are getting killed. The police insist that the death toll remains at 5,000, but unofficial sources tell us that three or even four times that number have been killed, mostly in Metro Manila and Bulacan.
Santa Banana, even his promise to end government corruption has not seemed to make a dent. Corruption in government persists. It seems like the Bureau of Customs, among other agencies, is a curse to every president.
Duterte may be realizing that being president is not like being mayor.
Whether Duterte likes it or not, a multitude of challenges faces him in the last three years of his administration.
Among them, aside from drugs and corruption, is insurgency. There are now problems of IS-inspired terrorists in the South, China’s incursion into the West Philippine Sea and fishing in our exclusive economic zone, inflation, unemployment, and inadequate wages.
Add to all these the increasing incidence of poverty.
It was unfortunate that the President did not dwell on these gut issues that affect us all.
There was an aspect of the President’s SONA that government agencies should take seriously. This is the issue of making such agencies people-friendly.
President Duterte meant that dealing with these agencies should be easier. Licenses, permits and approvals should be fast.
And if he did not anymore push for federalism in his speech, that means he is leaving it to the next president. Mr. Duterte must have realized that it was going to be a leap into the unknown. People do not have a lot of information on this issue.
Monday’s Sona was just like what we expected.
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The President should listen to the Social Weather Stations survey that says six out of 10 Filipinaos believe we should heed the resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council and find out what is going on with the President’s bloody war on drugs.
I have always said that illegal drugs is a health issue, not a peace-and-order one.
Just think: Given the brutality of the illegal drugs campaign, why do illegal drugs persist through the Bureau of Customs or the porous borders of our archipelago? The problem cannot be solved just by killing the drug pushers. It’s an issue of supply and demand.
The menace can only be addressed by putting up more community-based rehabilitation centers to make drug victims become productive citizens.
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Every now and then, President Duterte mentions the possibility of a coup d’etat by the military. But deep down, he must know that this is next to impossible given his high ratings. In the first place, he has given the military and the police everything they have asked for—higher salaries and housing. They are sectors most pampered by the President.
We saw this when Defense Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and the Reform the Armed Forces Movement of Col. Gringo Honasan led a breakaway group. That started the Edsa people power movement.
But remember the Magdalo? There was only a military movement, without the people power component.
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I am glad that President Duterte mentioned the Department of Disaster Resilience as one of the priorities of Congress.
I have long advocated a permanent body to replace the ad hoc National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council. We need focus and strategy to deal with all types of disaster.
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Some of my friends said they missed my column last week. I had an operation because of cataract, and I needed some time to recover. I am very happy to be back.
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