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Friday, March 29, 2024

Duterte at it again, slams ‘rich and crazy’ in PH

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President Rodrigo Duterte has slammed the “rich” and “crazy” in the country and said they should be killed, as he slammed businessmen involved in water concession agreements with the government whom he called “thieves.”

In a speech on Thursday, the President told his audience comprised of former rebels to just wait for his “signal” to kill the businessmen.

“There are rich people in the Philippines who are crazy. They’re the ones whom we should kill. Just wait for my go signal," Duterte said.

He also took a swipe anew against the Ayalas and the Pangilinans over the 1997 water concession agreement which he claimed contained provisions that were unfair and disadvantageous to the government.

“They are all thieves, those sons of bitch. That's the whole truth,” Duterte said.

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“They are just distributors of water, yet they have become millionaires because they overpowered the Filipino. That's why I am angry at them," he added.

He was referring to Fernando Zobel de Ayala and Manuel V. Pangilinan, who chair major concessionaires Manila Water and Maynilad, respectively.

He said the two tycoons have "violated the rights of the people."

The government’s contract with the water concessionaires has been a recurring topic in the President’s speeches since December last year.

Duterte earlier ordered the Department of Justice to draft new contracts with the water firms without the “onerous” provisions. If the two companies refuse to accept the new contract, Duterte said he would take over their operations and nationalize the distribution of water.

The contracts were set to expire in 2022 after the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System canceled the extension of the agreement that was supposed to be until 2037.

Aside from the water deal, the LRT1 concession agreement and the UP Ayala Technohub lease contract have also been placed under scrutiny by the administration on the orders of Duterte.

Meanwhile, Commission on Higher Education Chairman Prospero de Vera III welcomed the instruction of President Duterte to review the contract between the University of the Philippines and Ayala Land Inc. for the development of the Technohub complex along Commonwealth Avenue, which is part of the 37-hectare land of UP Diliman.

In a statement Friday, De Vera said he would raise the issue in the meeting of the UP Board of Regents on Feb. 3.

He also urged the UP Board to provide “full support by instructing all UP offices to provide the necessary documents and ensuring that all individuals involved in the transactions will be interviewed” to determine if the 2006 lease contract was advantageous to the university.

Under the deal, UP will receive a total of P10.23 billion during the 25-year lease—P4.23 billion payment and P6 billion in investments—according to Ayala Land.

Of the total lease payments, P1.1 billion was estimated to have come in from 2008 to 2018 while P3.13 billion would come from 2019 to 2033.

Ownership of the buildings, constructed at P6 billion, will also be turned over to UP at the end of the lease contract, the Ayala Land said.

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