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Monday, December 26, 2016
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MANILA – Senators on Christmas Eve posted their holiday messages and took the opportunity to either celebrate the progress made by the Duterte administration or give voice to their concerns over the government’s policies.
Senate President Koko Pimentel’s message of solidarity with President Rodrigo Duterte’s calls for peace declared his support for the unilateral ceasefire with “rebel forces.”
“At no time in four decades has our nation been closer to long-lasting peace than now. Let us pray that we achieve this in 2017,” Pimentel declared.
Pimentel also characterized the signing of the General Appropriations Act of 2017 as a holiday gift and encouraged people to be thankful for the “Budget for Change.”
“In this budget we are sharing the nation’s blessings to all our countrymen in the form of free tuition in State Universities and Colleges, free irrigation for farmers, and free health insurance coverage for all, and well distributed strategic infrastructure works, among others,” wrote the Senate president.
“We have a lot planned for next year. We need to prepare our bodies, hearts, and minds for the hard and challenging work ahead. So let us all take this time to recharge our batteries with courage, fortitude, and steadfastness,” Pimentel added.
Sen. Leila de Lima, who had spent the year in a vicious conflict with the President, called on the government to respect human rights in her Christmas message.
Hoping for a miracle, de Lima said that she wished for President Duterte to wake up on Christmas day with “full control of his faculties” and give the gift of the nativity by “respecting every Filipino’s right to live as they were born in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
She also hoped that the “Holy Spirit and the Son and the Father” visit President Duterte to bless him and his family “with the gift of life and the grace of kindness and compassion to their fellow human beings.”
Senators Risa Hontiveros, Kiko Pangilinan, and Bam Aquino were more neutral in their tone.
Hontiveros released a video in praise of OFWs and a call for “pause muna, peace muna”, while Pangilinan shared a video of the lights on their Christmas tree twinkling to music. (GMA News)
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