Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate. INQUIRER.net file photo / Noy Morcoso
MANILA, Philippines — Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate said Tuesday that President Rodrigo Duterte clearly “duped the people” as he called the chief executive’s campaign slogan – “change is coming” – a “scam.”
Zarate said Duterte’s admission that his gutsy pronouncements and promises during his campaign for the 2016 elections were just a farce, even calling those who believed him as stupid, only means all that the President said then were “worthless.”
“The ‘change is coming’ mantra is now a big joke, a scam,” the lawmaker said in a statement.
“As it is, another one of his campaign promises has come to nothing. We are seeing now how President Duterte duped the people by telling them what they want to hear when he was then still courting their votes, but, once in power, he does an about-face and did the opposite,” he added.
Zarate further stressed that the “presidency is not a joke,” and recounted Duterte’s undelivered campaign pledges of ending the country’s drug problem in three months, stopping labor contractualization, solving EDSA traffic, eradicating corruption, and pursuing the peace negotiations.
“Many did not take it literally then that he will actually jetski himself to the Spratly’s and plant the Philippine flag. The expectation was for him, when elected, to uphold our claims and defend our sovereign rights against China’s aggressive actions in the West Philippine Sea,” the party-list congressman said.
“He made it very clear now, then, that his failing presidency is anchored, among others, on a tragic, sick joke,” Zarate added.
On Monday night, Duterte said his 2016 promise to ride a jet ski to the Spratly Islands and plant a Philippine flag there was a “pure campaign joke,” calling those who believed him “stupid.”
Duterte said he had planned to go through with his promise, even ended up buying a second-hand jet ski, but found it to be logistically impossible as he said he would run out of gasoline and could be overwhelmed by waves.