President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (center) joins the grand celebration and festivities of the 56th ‘Araw ng Davao Del Sur’ in Digos City on Saturday, July 1. (Screengrab / RTVM)
DAVAO CITY — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. thanked the people of Davao del Sur for the overwhelming number of votes he garnered there in the last elections and assured them that the promises he made at the height of the campaign were not “mere campaign slogans.”
“(When I saw) the brief, ang tatalo lang sa resulta ng Davao del Sur ay Ilocos Norte (the only place that beat the results from Davao del Sur was Ilocos Norte),” said the President in a personal note to people of Davao del Sur during his speech in the province’s 56th founding anniversary on Saturday, July 1.
“Hindi po kayo mabibigo sa inyong ibinigay na supporta. Lahat po ng ating pinag-uusapan noong eleksyon at kampanya, hindi po campaign slogans lamang iyon, iyon pong sinasabi nating pagkakaisa, wala po kaming ginawa kundi ang ipatupad ang aming pangako sa taumbayan, ang aming ipinangako sa inyo (You will not regret the support you’ve given me. Everything that we talked about during the elections and the campaign, they were not mere campaign slogans. What we call unity, we are trying to deliver our promise since the first day of my administration),” the President said.
He did not mention his campaign promise to bring down the price of rice to P20 per kilo but he lauded Davao del Sur as the first province in the Davao region to be declared “insurgency-free.”
Marcos also lauded the provincial government for upgrading its health facilities to cater not only to patients in Davao del Sur but those coming from other areas as well. He also praised the provincial government’s thrust to digitalize the local bureaucracy.
The President then proceeded to Davao City, where he led the unveiling of the first seven-kilometer segment of the Davao City coastal by-pass road project in Matina and witnessed the signing of the loan agreement between the Philippine government officials and the Asian Development Bank for the Davao public transport modernization project in Davao City at Acacia Hotel here.