BY GLENDA TAYONA AND DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
ILOILO City – Just reiterations and lies. This was how a militant group described the last State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Rodrigo Duterte.
According to Bryan Bosque, deputy spokesperson of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Panay, Duterte’s SONA on July 26 was no different from those in the past five years.
“He only reiterated what he would usually order his men in normal times – ‘shoot them dead’,” said Bosque.
“Indeed, as he is nearing the end of his term, this fascist regime of Duterte will only get deadlier each day,” Bosque added.
According to the group, Duterte has only two problems in mind: drugs and insurgency. And his solutions to these are what makes the Filipino people “suffer from hunger and poverty”.
“More than 30,000 have already been killed in his drug war, and more than 400 political activists, human rights workers, farmers, workers, indigenous people, and many other mass leaders were extrajudicially killed. About 30 of those were from Panay Island,” said the group’s spokesperson.
The group further opined that what the President boasted as “economic growth” was a lie, citing an Ibon Foundation study that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth consistently decreased since 2016. From 7.1 percent in 2016, it became 6.9 percent in 2017, 6.3 percent in 2018, and six percent in 2019.
On Duterte’s remarks lauding the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and its accomplishments, the group said this was another lie.
According to Duterte, 17,000 communist rrebels have surrendered and their programs have benefitted the communities.
“This is another lie from Duterte and his minions in the Armed Forces. In fact, they are the ones that benefitted from the ‘surrenderees’ whose numbers, they claimed before were only pegged from 3,000 to 4,000 or even lower. Imagine the millions or even billions that were ‘paid’ to these so-called surrenderees that were pocketed by Duterte’s men,” Bosque said.
He added: “In the case of the Tumandok people who were repeatedly called to in a restaurant in Oton, Iloilo, they were presented as rebel returnees but were not given the promised assistance. He also boasted about the projects…But ask the barangays that were selected as beneficiaries if they received their P20-million subsidy. Not even a single centavo arrived actually.”
In terms of relief assistance, the group noted that Duterte did not even mention any.
“Our people are hungry and starving, but clearly, Duterte just wants to maintain that. It is either we die from hunger or the lack of proper healthcare or be killed by Duterte’s killers and state forces,” said Bosque.
Bosque stressed that “if there is someone who is destroying the country, it is no one but Duterte, his killer state forces, and those that benefitted from corruption, those business-tycoons from Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law, rice cartels and importers from rice tariffication law, those who expanded their businesses like water and telecommunications, and those in power who are using it to catapult themselves and secure slots in the 2022 presidential elections.”
“With nothing to look forward to from this fascist regime, we are left with nothing but the greater resolve to advance our causes and demands for the betterment of our people. We have to strengthen our ranks, expand and recruit more and see to it that Duterte will be held accountable to bring justice to all victims of human rights violations,” Bosque stressed.
‘DOUBLETALK’
Meanwhile, local labor rights group General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA) regarded Duterte’s final SONA as “doubletalk rhetoric”.
In a statement, GAWA secretary-general Wennie Sancho said Duterte’s SONA was a well-crafted exaggeration of achievements from the perspective of the Duterte administration.
He said it was a panoramic presentation of economic prosperity in order to eclipse the economic suffering of the poor toiling masses under the heavy weight of the pandemic and an ailing economy.
Sancho said Duterte’s SONA had no concrete measures presented to address the present massive unemployment and the rising number of Filipino families experiencing moderate and extreme hunger.
“We were left with empty assurances that our economy is on the road to recovery,” Sancho said.
He also hit Duterte’s foreign policy wherein he also had never asserted the country’s sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea.
“He proudly talks about the return of the Balangiga bells that symbolizes freedom, but he never demanded China to return to us our territories which they illegally occupied,” Sancho pointed out.
He further questioned the administration if it should surrender the Filipinos’ sovereign rights out of fear, and maintain its “kowtow” policy towards China.
Overall, Sancho said Duterte’s last SONA failed to focus on major economic concerns compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.
“The president could have done more to alleviate the economic sufferings of the people, but the SONA is an orchestrated scenario to make it appear that all is well,” he added./PN