BY WENDELL VIGILIA and RAYMOND AFRICA
“COMPLETELY disappointing.”
This was how opposition leader Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman described President Duterte’s fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) after the Chief Executive allegedly failed to thoroughly discuss his plans to address the crisis brought about by the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Instead of doing this, Lagman said Duterte resorted to his usual “populist” style and his predictable “threatening rhetoric” by hitting telecommunication companies and perceived oligarchs like the Lopez family, the owner of ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp.
“I was expecting (the President to) very accurately (discuss) what plans he has in responding to the health and economic crisis brought about by the pandemic but he did not,” he told ANC. “The people were waiting for him to say this (plans to address pandemic) but nothing was said.”
While the public expected the President to present a road map in navigating and resolving the crisis, Lagman said the speech “wandered into the roadside of generalities.”
Sen. Risa Hontiveros said the President failed to satisfy the public’s expectation that he would lay down concrete measures in response to the continuing threat of the COVID-19 pandemic to the country.
She lamented that instead of addressing the economic, health and social impacts of the coronavirus crisis, the President instead took the opportunity to hit his critics and rant about his personal grudge against the media.
“Mr. President: COVID-19 is the enemy, not the activists. Mr. President: COVID-19 is the enemy, not the media,” she said.
She said the President’s SONA was not the true state of the country as “it was not even an address.”
“The President uttered the same incoherent statements that did not present a health and economic roadmap that could lead us through this pandemic, issues of unemployment and hunger,” she added.
Sen. Joel Villanueva noted there was no mention on how the government would address the problems on unemployment and how it could help the more than 400,000 displaced overseas Filipino workers, which he said many people were expecting.
The President likewise did not bring up what his plans were for the country’s medical and allied frontliners.
There was also no accounting of the more than P300 billion budget that Congress authorized the Executive to spend for COVID-19-related activities.
“I want to know how the loans from international financial institution have been utilized or are being utilized. If we have not utilized (them), what is the plan in utilizing this?” Villanueva asked.
Lagman said the President’s endorsement of the proposed Bayanihan to Heal as One Act 2 was the only time he mentioned a COVID-19 response fund.
“It’s a minimal small package,” he said of the P140 billion budget under the proposed law.
“It’s a very miniscule amount and it could not properly respond to the health and economic emergencies. It’s stingy compared to our Asean neighbors’ much, much bigger budgets in gross and per capita outlay.”
Lagman said Duterte could not even say that there is no fund available, noting that there are available loans from multilateral banks like the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Bank “much of which have already been committed or even received by this country.”
SATISFIED
Deputy speaker Mikee Romero said he was satisfied with the President’s plans as the country waits for a vaccine to put an end to the pandemic.
Administration lawmaker PBA party-list Rep. Jericho Nograles thanked the President for promising to improve the telecommunication services in the country by threatening to shut down telcos for their lousy services.
Nograles said that according to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), 63 percent of the country remained “dark” in 2016 until 2018 which means that there remains no signal in the areas.
“In the time of pandemic, communications technology is very important. The new normal and our future economy rely on a good communications infrastructure. The President’s call is good. We’ll focus on this,” he said.
SIDE ISSUES
Other senators took more notice of the side issues discussed in the President’s speech.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Sen. Panfilo Lacson shared Duterte’s disappointment with the telecommunication services provided by Smart/PLDT and Globe.
Sotto said owners of the two telcos should “take the President’s word seriously when the latter said he wants telecommunications to improve by December this year.”
This was the reaction given by Lacson who said: “It is about time that the telcos invest more to improve their services.”
But while tirades against the poor telecommunication services got the lawmakers’ nod, it was a different thing with the President’s push for the revival of the death penalty for drug offenders.
Sotto said the measure might gain traction in the Senate now that the President has focused on drug-related crimes. “We can try again, another shot at it, especially now that the President focused only in crimes in RA 9165. Better chances,” he said.
Lacson, however, was not too optimistic. “My count in the Senate tells me that it will face a very rough sailing in the upper chamber,” he said.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan said Duterte’s push for the revival of the death penalty was ill-timed: “COVID, gutom, at walang trabaho ng milyon-milyon ang matinding poblema, death penalty ang isinusulong. Walang ibang hangarin kundi pumatay. ‘Yan ang State of the Nation (COVID, hunger, joblessness of millions of Filipinos are the problems besetting the country and yet he is pushing for the revival of the death penalty. He has no other desire but to kill people. That is the State of the Nation),” Pangilinan said in a Tweet.
‘NOT THE PROPER VENUE’
Lagman also slammed the President for using the SONA in trying to rebut the statements of Senate minority leader Franklin Drilon about the denial of the franchise application of ABS-CBN by the House of Representatives, saying “it’s not the time to make personal assaults against an incumbent senator.”
Drilon said he was merely defending press freedom, not the Lopez family, when he urged the President to ban political dynasties to put an end to the “real oligarchy” in the country.
“As I said before, for democracy to thrive we need free press and to allow journalists to exercise complete freedom to do their mandates of reporting facts without fear,” Drilon said, adding: “I was defending the 11,000 people and their families who would lose jobs amid the pandemic, not the Lopezes.”
