DIGOS CITY, Davao del Sur – Vice presidential candidate and Senator Francis Escudero said Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s target to stamp out crime and corruption in six months if he won as president, would not be realistic, even if laudable.
“Having a target is good,” Escudero told reporters during a visit here on Monday. However, he said that Duterte could not possibly do what he pledged in so short a time.
“It can’t be done. Not within his term,” Escudero said, adding that anti-crime and anti-corruption campaigns have always been “works in progress.”
“Definitely, in cannot be done in three to six months, even in six years. The problems are too serious and deeply rooted that these cannot be easily defeated,” he said.
But he said that setting a similar goal would certainly help, whoever the president would be, to reduce crime and corruption.
“It is important for a leader to set a goal but not deadlines. When you set a goal, you will have a set of guidelines on what you are going to do in a certain period. That is laudable,” Escudero added.
As to Duterte’s promise to resign if he could not eliminate crime and corruption in three to six months, Escudero said “if he wins, he should not resign the presidency just because he has not fulfilled his pledge. If he made serious gains, he should continue.”
He said he and Senator Grace Poe shared the same agenda, only that they had not promised to instantly eliminate corruption, crime and poverty.
“We will implement the law, strictly implement anti-corruption drive and craft laws to reduce poverty,” Escudero said.
He said that if he and Poe won the elections, their first action would be to make all transactions in such agencies as the Bureau of Internal Revenue as transparent as possible.
“We will replace their tables with ones without drawers and we will put glasses on them so clients can see what’s inside,” Escudero said.
“But as I said, ours will be a work in progress. It’s difficult to make pledges but we will do our best to deliver on issues we intend to address,” he added. SFM