Listen to the people and fortify their faith in government.
So said President Rodrigo Duterte during his inaugural speech on Thursday in the Rizal Hall in Malacanang.
“We have to listen to the murmurings of the people, feel their pulse, supply their needs and fortify their faith and trust in us whom they elected to public office,” Duterte said during his fifteen-minute expletive-free speech.
Speaking for the first time as the country’s chief executive, Duterte explained why there is an “errosion of faith and trust in government.”
READ: Duterte takes oath as PH’s 16th President
“Erosion of faith and trust in government—that is the real problem that confronts us. Resulting therefrom, I see the erosion of the people’s trust in our country’s leaders; the erosion of faith in our judicial system; the erosion of confidence in the capacity of our public servants to make the people’s lives better, safer and healthier,” he said.
The President reiterated his promise to end criminality, illegal drugs and corruption in government “by all means that the law allows.”
While many disagree with methods of fighting criminality, illegal drugs and corruption, he explained where his perspective was coming from.
“They say that my methods are unorthodox and verge on the illegal,” he said.
But he enumerated his reponses to his critics.
“I have seen how corruption bled the government of funds, which were allocated for the use in uplifting the poor from the mire that they are in,” he said.
“I have seen how illegal drugs destroyed individuals and ruined family relationships,” he added.
He said he has seen “how criminality, by means all foul, snatched from the innocent and the unsuspecting, the years and years of accumulated savings. Years of toil and then, suddenly, they are back to where they started.”
“Look at this from that perspective and tell me that I am wrong,” he said.
In his vow to fuflill his promise of real change, he asked Congress, the Commission on Human Rights and other sectors to allow his administration to perform the people’s mandate.
READ: FULL TEXT: President Rodrigo Duterte inauguration speech
“In this fight, I ask Congress and the Commission on Human Rights and all others who are similarly situated to allow us a level of governance that is consistent to our mandate. The fight will be relentless and it will be sustained,” he said.
As a lawyer and a former prosecutor, he said he knew “the limits of the power and authority of the president.”
“I know what is legal and what is not. You mind your work and I will mind mine,” he said.
He urged Filipinos to join him in his crusade for real change.
“But the change, if it is to be permanent and significant, must start with us and in us,” he said.
He also borrowed the language of F. Sionil Jose, saying “We have become our own worst enemies. And we must have the courage and the will to change ourselves.”
“Love of country, subordination of personal interests to the common good, concern and care for the helpless and the impoverished—these are among the lost and faded values that we seek to recover and revitalize as we commence our journey towards a better Philippines. The ride will be rough. But come and join me just the same. Together, shoulder to shoulder, let us take the first wobbly steps in this quest,” he said.
Duterte even cited a quoatation where the foundations of his government would be built.
“The test of government is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide for those who have little,” he said.
Before ending his speech, he said he was elected to serve the people and not a few individuals.
“I was not elected to serve the interests of any one person or any group or any one class. I serve every one and not only one,” he said.
“I am here because I love my country and I love the people of the Philippines. I am here, why? Because I am ready to start my work for the nation,” he added. RAM/rga
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