Did President Rodrigo Duterte really fulfill his task as a father?
The Makabayan party-list bloc raised this question, days before the President delivers his third State of the Nation Address, which director Joyce Bernal said would portray him as the “father” of the nation.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro said: “We’re asking if he’s really been a father over the past year to the children and students who have been orphaned by his war on drugs.”
Data on deaths
Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas also took the President to task for the continued military operations that, she said, had displaced communities in Mindanao.
Brosas said it had been difficult to gather data on the deaths of evacuees displaced by last year’s conflict in Marawi City because local officials were supposedly afraid to disclose them.
“Who will protect them? What kind of father will do these things?” Brosas said.
ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio also noted the “sale” of the Philippine maritime claims to China, the demeaning treatment of women, and the attacks on the Supreme Court, the Commission on Human Rights, the Ombudsman and the press. —With reports from Kristela Danielle Boo and Anna Patricia Campos