Militant teachers slam Duterte for ‘failed promises’

President Rodrigo Duterte. PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER PHOTO / JOAN BONDOC

A group of teachers on Monday blasted President Rodrigo Duterte’s “failed promises” ahead of his second State of the Nation Address (Sona).

“After a year as President, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, failed to deliver the promises he made during the election campaign and the plans he outlined in his first state of the nation address,” Congress of Teachers and Educators for Nationalism and Democracy (Contend) said in a statement.

Contend, a group of teachers advocating for a nationalist, scientific and mass-oriented education, said the Duterte administration “did nothing” to stop the implementation of the K to 12 program, bringing many teachers to unemployment due to retrenchment.

He also failed to end contractualization, an issue he consistently denounced during the campaign period, the group said.

“His promise to provide better wages for workers remains a pie in the sky,” Contend added.

Contend denounced Duterte’s bloody and war on drugs, the only promise that he “took seriously” in his first year in office.

“If there is a promise that Duterte took seriously it is his war against drugs. Yet his war against drugs is a war that he cannot finish without indiscriminately treading on human rights and eliminating drug criminals, mostly poor, by extrajudicial killings,” the group explained.

The war on drugs has also been used by government forces to “neutralize state criminals, activists, and political oppositions,” Contend said.  JPV