FULL TEXT: Duterte speech at Villamor Air Base in Pasay

President Rodrigo Duterte. FILE PHOTO

PRESIDENT RODRIGO DUTERTE’S SPEECH
DURING THE 48th ANNIVERSARY OF THE
250th PRESIDENTIAL AIRLIFT WING
Fixed Wing Hangar, Colonel Jesus Villamor Air Base, Pasay City
September 13, 2016

Kindly sit down. Thank you.

Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, General Ricardo Visaya, other major service commanders, Lieutenant General Edgar Fallorina, Colonel Allen Paredes, former Wing Commanders of the 25th Presidential Wing, Airman of the 25th Presidential Wing, fellow workers in government, my beloved countrymen.

Unahin ko muna ‘yung ano, felicitations. My warmest greetings to the command, to the Presidential Wing. Salamat po sa serbisyo ninyo sa akin, ngayon at ‘nong noon. When I was mayor, of course it was the CASF.

Malaki pong utang na loob ko sa Air Force for the mobility that they provided me during the years of my service to the government, that would have been about 40 years, hence.

Pangalawa po, wala masyado akong pera ngayon. But I am approving the extension of the pilots’ quarters. It’s about two million plus. I’m giving it to you right away. The repair of the E.P. barracks, about 900 plus, maibigay ko po ‘yan. Pati ‘yung repair ng rotary door railings, which is about—that’s about 700 lahat—million. Medyo hindi mabigat ‘yan.

And I’d like you to know that, I’m not trying to earn a gratitude here. I’m just trying to say that what we, your—yung bata-bata ninyo sa Malacañan, eh I went to the Medical Center of the AFP. Well of course, there were things which were—well, anyway, I gave you half a billion: CT Scan—hindi na CT Scan, MRI. Pati new building to replace the original one, but I said, you can always refurbish the buildings, sayang eh. But entirely new one and a lot of machines, ‘yung Gamma Rays X-ray, and of course, ‘yung para sa orthopedics. All in all, I give you almost half a billion and I hope that it would improve the services to the soldiers.

I’m quite not comfortable with the arrangement now that ‘yung—ang Army, kung magpunta sa Air Force at doon magpa-ano, magbayad pa. And the Air Force in the field, and it’s the expense of the Army, for whatever reason, for any event, magbayad na naman ang Air—you know, you have to pay interbranch.

I’d like—just to give you one service command para sa lahat. It would expedite matters and centralize everything. And I want to deal for the next six years, in the coming years, kung buhay pa ako, to just deal with one person for the entire needs.

Medical service for the entire—pati na pulis. Kasi kawawa naman sila kung i-separate mo. Then we can have an improved V. Luna Hospital also. I will try to give you the things that you need and especially—going now to the arms, it’s about time that we talk seriously about our sovereignty.

We are not going to cut our umbilical cord with the countries that we are allied now. But itong modernization, mayor pa po ako and they started about many years ago, when Bonifacio was sold and with the commitment that it should be used to modernize the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

In the coming decades, there would no longer be a worry about a world war. Kasi po, if you dwell on another third world war, that is effectively ending the planet Earth or it would no longer be a very habitable place to live, should you unleash all your nuclear bombs. So, it could only be a result of a grave and serious miscalculation. That’s the problem always. It’s miscalculation. But I see in the horizon the dark clouds of terrorism.

You have to just—from a civilian, maski hindi na ako. Don’t look me as a President. Just as a civilian giving you a piece of advice. The horror that we are facing in the coming days would really be terrorism and drugs.

Ito namang droga, I have been at the receiving end and you know that. It could be, well, funny to look at. Sometimes, you ponder on the—I said, how we should conduct our foreign policy.

You know, we are not just a—we could never be just a small country and to be shouted at or lectured upon by any foreign country or by any President.

And so, when they were talking about human rights. I authorized the release of all the pictures of the horror that the Philippines suffered under the Spaniards and the Americans and for the years that they sat on this country and took care, got it all, the fat of the land for so many years, for a hundred years.

I said to myself early on that this cannot continue, and I would have to address, if it’s human rights problem then we must discuss the entire gamut, a dimension of—and so nandiyan ngayon sa Facebook, ‘yung massacre everywhere.

Balangiga sa Samar, that was the time that ten years old and above were massacred by the Americans and got the bell and until now, they hijacked it, stole it, and never returned it to us. It’s the sentimental value that is really attached. It is the massacre that happened to the Filipinos in Samar. Take in a note about that in the chapters of our history.

Cannot be forever shouted at and lectured upon, not me. As I have said, in my quest for what is right for my country, I am putting on the table at stake my honor, my life and the presidency. Period.

I can be ousted anytime. Walang problema kung Congress ‘yan initiate. Basta ako naka-focus lang. I promised the people that I will give you a clean government and it will be clean as it could ever be. I promised you that I’d get rid of the drug problem because if I don’t, if I don’t interdict the drug problem, it will compromise the next generation of Filipinos, given the numbers who are now addicted.

PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency) said, three years ago, that it was at three million. Now, recently, if you count by the numbers of those who surrendered, gave themselves to the authorities, it’s 700—just maintain that number, no incremental increase. We have a 3,700,000 addicts in this country. That number is not a joke.

I had a talk with Widodo, he has four million and that is why, napag-usapan lang naman, ang sabi namin na we will implement the laws, I told them, hindi ko na hinintay. I said, “Mr. President,” so as not for him to apologize or anything. I said, “Mr. President I have my laws…” It’s good that you have the death penalty here. At least you can bring it down to the barest minimum. I said, “Go ahead and implement the law.” I never, we never mentioned about Veloso.

Sinabi ko lang, we will respect the judgments of your courts. Period. It would have been a bad taste in the mouth to be talking about having a strong posture against drugs and here you are begging for something. I’m sorry, I’ve nothing to apologize because you know, the law is the law. But then again again, nothing to say I’m sorry for but the circumstances would not allow me to wander to another field of our talks.

We’re talking about terrorism and we also agreed to—I would allow you, the Philippine Navy, and the Air Force, and Coast Guard to pursue the pirates. Because in this jurisdiction, we follow that piracy is a crime against humanity and we agreed that even if you pursue in hot pursuit the criminals and you cross your border, you just announce, just announce it to the air that you’re entering because you are pursuing a drug pusher or a drug criminal syndicate and they would take over the chase.

But we also agreed that if anything happens during the chase and there’s a confrontation, we agreed that we can use force. Sabi namin, ganon and the pirates, I suggested to him, if it is a confirmed pirates there, pasabugin na natin. Sabi niya, “I agree.” It’s a war against piracy, piracy, if you may. ‘Yun ang pinag-usapan namin.

Then, lastly, I would not want to take much of your time to—the military commanders now, especially those who are just papataas pa kayo, from the ranks of Lieutenant Colonel, pag-aralan na ninyo ang purchase ng—and we have the money, they have—two countries have agreed to give me the softest loan. Maybe payable in 2025.

Sabi ko sa kanila na, I want weaponries and armaments, hindi ko kailangan ‘yang mga jets, ‘yang mga F-16, that’s of no use to us. We don’t intend to fight any country using that. Pag ginamit natin ‘yan, wala man rin tayong missile, ayaw tayo pabilihan ng mga gago, so let’s content ourselves with even the propeller-driven planes but which we can use extensively sa anti-insurgency.

We could, this could very well—from terrorism in Mindanao, it could generate into a full-blown civil war. That’s why, we are trying to talk, na-areglo ko na ‘yung, insofar as just talking, do not be dismayed about the fact that we are talking to the Left. Much as I would like to really be very strict about, you know, this thing about war but I am a President and my job is to seek the peace of the land.

We cannot be forever fighting Filipinos. We cannot be forever killing our own citizens. So they have agreed to talk, we can use the extra force now, we can focus them in Mindanao at ‘yung sabi ko, there are countries which offered us so many. Sabi nila, mamili ka lang doon.

I’d like to tell you that some of our guys there, I’d tell you in confidence who they are and you can also go there if you want. I would like to ask the Defense Secretary Lorenzana to—samahan kayo, the technical people, pumunta kayo ng Russia at pumunta kayo ng China at tingnan ninyo kung ano ang pinakamabuti.

But the most important thing here is you have to change paradigm. Hindi na ito giyera na harap-harapan. So it’s always a matter of detection. Meaning to say, something is afoot and you have to detect to find out what it is. ‘Yun ang ibig sabihin niyan.

Eh parang James Bond na ito ang laro na ito. Not so much about the display of might but your “might” might be stolen from you. So, ibahin na ninyo because we are dealing with terrorists and there will be explosions after explosions until we find peace.

Mabuti’t na lang, ang MI (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) has adopted a good neighbor policy like almost a belligerent country but not still and they have agreed to talk to us and as a matter of fact, help us in the arrest of several suspects, of people in doldrums.

Si Nur naman could not make up his mind. But I hope that someday he would decide because ‘yang Abu Sayyaf is out of his control. I’m sorry to say it in public. Hindi na niya mapasunod eh, so we have to do it for him.

Ang prob—ang naka-mabuti sa problema natin is Abu Sayyaf, is also a flashpoint somewhere between the MN and the Abu Sayyaf. So they are exchanging things there. I know the wife, there’s a conflict going on but at the end of the day, you might just take on to know one look at them because baka magkaisa.

So ‘yan ang problema natin: insurgency and terrorism. We will not join any expedition of patrolling the seas. I will not allow it because I do not want my country to be involved in a hostile act. Patrolling kasi, when you patrol not on the high seas but some other else’s territory, whether it is really owned by us, which the law says, the judgment says, ‘atin ‘yan, entitlements’ at sabihin naman ng isa, China says, that’s beside the point.

The point is I do not want to ride gung-ho style there with China or with America. I just want to patrol our territorial waters so may I remind China again: Beyond the territorial waters are the entitlements of the sea, yung napanalo natin, but it is not part of our territory. It is a part of our Economic—Exclusive Economic Zone. Ano ‘yung mga isda, ano ‘yung makita mo diyan, pati ‘yung sa baba, ‘yung oil pati gas, kung meron.

But the territory is limited to the 12-mile limit. So that is ours. Hanggang diyan lang tayo. We do not go into a patrol or join any other army from now because I do not want trouble.

There will be no more—and we can buy the arms where they are cheap and where there are no strings attached and it is transparent. Sabi ko sa kanila, I would not deal with you except on a government-government basis. Sabi naman nila, you send your—mga technical men mo sa Armed Forces mo, and they’ll be happy to show you what they can offer.

Sabi ko, well in the coming days. It would depend on—pag sinabi ni General Lorenzana na tama na, okay na, susunod lang ako. Kung kulang, saan tayo nagkulang? I want propeller-driven, short-run bombings, kailangan natin ‘yan and we will buy. And you will start your modernization further with me.

Ibibigay ko sa lahat sa inyo ‘yung kailangan ninyo para talunin ‘yung kalaban. You can be sure of that. Short of a world war which we cannot participate and which is any how, useless. I will give you all the things you want.

Lahat para talunin ninyo ang kalaban. And of course, I said, you may have, if you notice there are now adjustments in your salary. I hope by December, you’d have realized that double ang sweldo ninyong lahat, pulis pati ang Armed Forces, double the salary.

And for the men down, ang kawawa, ‘yung lahat ng byuda, automatically, pag walang trabaho, they are employed. I’ve ordered the different DILGs, maski casual lang. So they would receive the one sack of rice, as a soldier, one sack of rice kasi enroll ko rin sila sa 4Ps and a job to boot para—and a scholarship.

In the next year’s budget, we may adjust the—ang edukasyon sa kindergarten hanggang high school, libre na, gobyerno na ang magbayad .

‘Yun lang ang maibigay ko sa inyo ngayon but surely as we progress, and I hope the country also—the economic side of the country will go full blast, and we can trade with all, but I said, we are not cutting with our alliances, military as well but certainly, we will follow an independent posture, an independent foreign policy.

Maraming salamat po.

Read here all of President Duterte’s speeches delivered during his visit to various military camps across the country.