‘We want peace of the living’

In his maiden Sona, the President said “the enormity of the problem of drug addiction has been made manifest by the number of surrenderees, which grows by the hundreds each day that passes. To date, we have over 120,000 drug dependents.”

While allegations of extrajudicial killings have outraged human rights activists and the Catholic Church, Mr. Duterte has scored a trust rating of 91 percent, according to a Pulse Asia report last week, indicating popular approval of his widely publicized war on drugs that has claimed more than 300 lives, mostly poor and unshod suspects slain in squatter colonies.

“We will not stop until the last drug lord, the last financier, the last supplier and the last pusher have surrendered or are put either behind bars or below ground,” he said. “If you do not want to die, if you do not want to be hurt, don’t go to the priests or the human rights (advocates). They cannot stop your death,” he said.

Upbeat reception

Reaction to the President’s maiden Sona was generally upbeat, according to Inquirer bureaus.

“He was directly talking to us,” said Clement Ingking, 21, who watched in his Tagbilaran home the televised speech. “More importantly, he was telling us the truth.”

The President strode into the jampacked Batasang Pambansa  session hall, wearing a barong Tagalog with rolled up sleeves and a Philippine flag pinned on his collar, his left hand in the pocket of his pants and the other occasionally waving and shaking hands with guests and lawmakers.

In attendance were former Presidents Fidel V. Ramos, Joseph Estrada and  Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Now a Pampanga representative, Arroyo was ordered freed by the Supreme Court last week, which dismissed plunder charges that had kept her nearly five nears under hospital arrest. Aquino, Arroyo’s jailer, did not attend the event.

The President vowed to work for “permanent and lasting peace” before his term ends. “That is my goal, that is my dream,” he said. Despite assertions of willingness to negotiate, Mr. Duterte lamented that “we load our guns, fix our sights and pull the trigger.

Painful and tragic

He also spoke of the tragic, painful results of the ongoing war, which no amount of compensation could soothe.

“It is both ironic and tragic—and it is endless. While others see and extol the bravery and heroism of our soldiers, and those on the opposing side do the same as well for their members and fighters, what I see instead are the widows and the orphans,” he said.

“I feel their pain and I grieve. No amount of cash assistance or death benefits or the number of medals can compensate the loss of a loved one. Sorrow cuts across every stratum of society. It cuts deeply and the pain lasts long,” he added.

“While our search for peace continues, let me make this appeal to you. ‘If we cannot, as yet, love one another, then in God’s name, let us not hate each other too much,’ so it was said. I say the same to you today,” he said.  With reports from Jerome Aning, Jaymee T. Gamil, Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon, and Leo Udtohan and Victor Silva, Inquirer Visayas/TVJ

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