Duterte has nothing to brag about on his second Sona – de Lima
Is there anything that President Rodrigo Duterte can be proud about on Monday, his second State of the Nation Address (Sona)?
That was the question posed on Friday by the President’s fiercest critic detained Senator Leila de Lima.
De Lima counted Duterte’s promises during his first Sona and wondered how many of these were actually kept.
“Killings? The lies? Yung droga andyan pa rin. Bumalik nga sa [New Bilibid Prison] (NBP). Bakit? Kasi hinayaan nila mamayagpag yung mga drug convicts na yan, in exchange sa pag-testify nila sa akin. (Drugs still exist. It resurrected in Bilibid. Why? Because they tolerated the drug convicts in exchange for their testimony against me),” De Lima told reporters.
“Yung mga totoong drug lords? May nahuli na ba? Yung may kasong katiwalian, hindi ba pinalaya nila (Have they arrested any real drug lords? They even released those with graft cases)?” she said.
High-profile drug convicts have testified against de Lima during a House inquiry into the prison drug trade. They tagged her as one of the masterminds of the drug cartel at the NBP in Muntinlupa.
The drug convicts who testified against her were Herbert Colanggo, Engelberto Durano, Vicente Sy, Jojo Baligad and Wu Tuan Yuan alias Peter Co.
“Yung endo, yung sweldo ng sundalo at pulis? Yung traffic, kumusta na ba? Bumababa ba yung mga presyo ng bilihin? Tumataas ba ang halaga ng piso? At bakit hinahayaan ng gobyernong ito na angkinin ng bansang Tsina ang mga teritoryo natin sa West Philippine Sea? (How is the endo (end of contract), wages of our soldiers and police, traffic? What about the prices of commodities? Has the peso to dollar exchange rate improved? And why is the Philippines allowing China to claim our territory in the West Philippine Sea),” she added.
Duterte promised to address the endo issue by issuing an Executive Order which has yet to materialize.
The President also promised to double the salary of military personnel and police officers, but the 2017 budget did not allocate any amount to fulfill this promise.
The administration initially planned to declare traffic as a national crisis in order to speed up the process of easing traffic in the country. Two bills from both the House of Representatives and Senate, The Traffic Crisis Act of 2016 (HB 4334) and Traffic and Congestion Crisis Act of 2016 (SB 1284) respectively, are on second reading. These bills contained provisions granting special powers and measures to solve traffic congestion in the country.
Peso value also suffered a devastating 50.94:$1 last Tuesday, alarmingly close to the weakest peso the country has seen: the August 29, 2006’s all-time low of 50.945:$1.
Four months ago, the President urged troops to take over unoccupied islands and reefs in the West Philippine Sea, a move that challenged its rival claimant China. Nonetheless, Duterte exerted various efforts to maintain warm diplomatic relations with China.
De Lima has been detained at Camp Crame since February. She was also barred from joining sessions at the Senate.
She is currently facing trial for obstruction of justice case for allegedly telling her former bodyguard Ronnie Dayan to snub the congressional inquiry on the NBP drug trade. Ma. Daphne Crystal Umali, INQUIRER.net trainee
