Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano. INQUIRER MINDANAO FILE PHOTOS
What the country needs at this time of rising criminality, systemic corruption and persistent poverty is a strong leader like PDP-Laban presidential candidate, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
This was the sentiment expressed by Duterte’s vice presidential candidate, Senate Majority leader Alan Peter Cayetano, in two separate radio interviews this week.
The lawmaker, in a press statement, pointed out that corruption is so widespread that every citizen has to deal with its impact on their daily lives.
“When we wake up in the morning all we hear are complaints over traffic, floods, tuition increases, and so on. If you get sick and you are poor, you worry if you will be admitted to a hospital,” Cayetano said.
“All these problems are linked to corruption. Public hospitals do not have modern facilities because of corruption. We have a shortage of classrooms and school facilities because of corruption. And even government-initiated livelihood projects have been tainted by corruption.”
Cayetano continued: “We are weak in running after the corrupt. Let us pass the Whistleblower Act and the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill.
We should also allow the opening of bank accounts of corrupt public officials. These measures are all pending in Congress.” For Cayetano, the country needs real change, and only a strong leader like Duterte can bring about the change that people want.
“Our opponents have plenty of resources for advertisements and sorties; we don’t. But we’re trying to be creative to offset this disadvantage. In our Ronda-Serye listening tours, we are able to talk to ordinary workers and employees,” he said.
Cayetano said that when they went to the Philippine General Hospital recently, he was able to talk to patients themselves, who told him about their hardships in getting medical attention.
“People in the provinces are also asking: Why don’t we have a Heart Center, Lung Center, Kidney Center. Why not a Mindanao Lung Center, Visayas Heart Center, a Southern Luzon Cancer Research Institute?” he said.