Senators bade farewell to President Aquino who ends his six-year watch as the country’s leader today.
In a statement, Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara thanked President Aquino for leaving “a stronger economy and nation upon which your successor may build upon.”
Angara said he hoped the incoming administration of Rodrigo Duterte would be able to continue with the “momentum for reform,” adding that this could be done through “critical collaboration between the executive, legislative and society at large.”
“We should band together despite our differences, and build on and expand from what we as a nation have already achieved,” Angara said.
Raising the bar
Incoming Sen. Leila de Lima said “any future administration will find it difficult matching” the success of the Aquino administration after the President’s “unprecedented achievements in the economy, reforms in government, anti-corruption and Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines modernization.”
“It is definitely the standard by which the next administration is going to be measured,” De Lima said in a text message.
De Lima, who served as Aquino’s justice secretary, said she was proud to have been part of Mr. Aquino’s Cabinet and “having served the country in the executive department under an honest, pure-hearted and dedicated President.”