Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s first State-of-the-Nation (SONA) address has brought renewed hope for constituents of Negros Oriental who believe that the man is sincere and genuine in his desire to serve the country and its people.
“For now, we are happy and inspired that Digong [Duterte] is also making the fight against human trafficking a co-equal with the fight against illegal drugs,” said Romualdo Señeris II, Visayan Forum regional coordinator for Central Visayas.
“Drugs and human trafficking are both part of the Top 3 crimes in the world according to the UN,” he added.
President Duterte had announced in his SONA that he considers the war against human trafficking and illegal recruitment as equally important as the problem against illegal drugs.
“We are happy also because we need to sustain our Tier 1 status in the fight against human trafficking as a country. And we need the President to support such fight,” said the Visayan Forum regional coordinator.
Señeris also announced that he and his VF team are happy about Duterte’s plans and directions for the Department of Social Welfare & Development wherein beneficiaries of the 4Ps are enabled to be independent by providing them with livelihood and other opportunities.
The same sentiment on the 4Ps was shared by Jun Yurong, marketing specialist at the Perpetual Help Community Cooperative Inc., who said it will teach the beneficiaries to be self-sufficient and not totally rely on government dole out.
He said he is hopeful of more projects for small islands like Siquijor, where he comes from, now that President Duterte is considering more projects for the provinces.
“I salute his ways of running after the ‘big fish’ in the illegal drugs trade,” Yurong added.
Maricar Aranas-Vensuelo, marketing & advertising officer of PHCCI, expressed optimism that the President will do what he has promised in his SONA. It was a long but very powerful speech, she added.
“I like the DENR [Department of Environment & Natural Resources] mandate, specifically on mining, especially when the President stressed [the need] to strictly follow government standard. This would mean less bald mountains,” Vensuelo said.
Her husband, Sulpicio Vensuelo Jr., however, expressed caution that the President should also be watchful with his Cabinet members as they might also be the same people who will go against him. He did not elaborate.
Engr. Fred Magallano, consultant on power development and executive director of the Diocesan Electoral Board of the Diocese of Dumaguete, described the President’s address as “the best SONA I’ve ever heard: authentic, Dutertic, prangka (straightforward), consistent with his election promises, no blame-game, direct, and slicing through the meat of the matter”.
The SONA was “forward-looking as it should be, offers the hand of peace, but maintains the iron fist of authority, and several times referring to the menace of drugs as a no-no. Who can beat that?” Engr. Magallano added.
But he said he would have wanted President Duterte to include one detail: “the interconnection of Mindanao to the Luzon-Visayas grid, which would improve the reserves of Mindanao which is in the most precarious situation now, as well as to integrate the overall system capability of the whole country”.
According to Magallano, the country would be operating then as one big grid, therefore, the reserves of Luzon and Visayas will be available to Mindanao; vice-versa, the reserves of Mindanao in some instances would be made available to Visayas or Luzon.
“On power plants, especially for Mindanao, I agree that coal plants are indispensable during these times. But their phase-out must be programmed in the future, just like what Britain, Korea, the U.S. and others are doing,” he added.
For student Aina Maree Siason, a volunteer for the Diocesan Association of Volunteers & Interpreters for the Deaf (DAVID), and the Diocesan Committee on Liturgical Music, the President’s SONA was impressive but that she had some reservations on [his mandates on] the Reproductive Health law and the illegal drugs problem.
“I am impressed with everything in the SONA except for the issue on drugs wherein the ‘big fish’ cannot be found here but are outside the country; and the full force implementation of the RH Law,”she said.
“President Duterte puts down the Catholic Church too much, then gives respect to Islam — which displays bias, and does not advocate for unification,” Siason added.
“The Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines obviously has something to say about the implementation of the RH law, and then ridicule is poured out against the Catholic Church,” Siason lamented.
“[I know] The President cannot please everyone but I think he is trying his best based on his own standards and principles to come up with fast solutions to cater to the problems of the country. But still, not everyone is at par with this,”she stressed.
“The Catholic Church is not only fighting against the RH law for the sake of Bible teachings, but also because of undesirable medical issues that would arise when it is passed,” Siason said.
Anna Marie Verzosa-Natindim, a Filipina who resides with her family in Jakarta, Indonesia, meanwhile, expressed hope that President Duterte will follow through with the assurance of having drug users treated for substance abuse, while the arrested pushers be brought to court.
On the one-stop shop plan for Overseas Filipino Workers, she pointed to a similar model in Cagayan de Oro City where government agencies like SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-Ibig are housed under one roof.
Verzosa, who hails from Dumaguete and whose husband is an OFW expat in Jakarta, expressed hope that the Duterte administration will add more agencies to what is currently existing, while replicating it in other parts of the country.
For a young businessman like Jan Michael Montebon Sarsaga of Tanjay City, President Duterte can only do so much and therefore, “we should help him accomplish his goals for the good of the people”.
Supportive of the President’s campaign against illegal drugs, Sarsaga said there is much to be done for the Duterte administration to rid the country of this problem.
Six years is still quite a long way ahead and so those who are involved in the illegal drugs problem should better surrender now, he added. (PNA)
