DUTERTE ON AGRICULTURE
“We worked for the passage of the rice tariffication law. This resulted in the stabilization of rice supply and food security,” claimed Duterte, completely dismissive of the peasant situation in the country.
The rice tariffication law is a death sentence to Filipino farmers. Despite being an agricultural country, with farmers making up most of the country’s population, the Philippines has long been one of the top rice importers in the world. As a result, the price of domestic rice plummeted as Filipino farmers were made to compete with imports, devoid of any support from the government.
The administration’s bid to crush the peasantry did not stop there. Duterte also employed another liberalization measure, Executive Order 128, which greatly reduced the tariff on pork imports at the expense of the local hog industry.
Halfway through his litany of lies, he also boasted about fulfilling his promise to coconut farmers through the Coconut Farmers and Industry Trust Fund Act. However, for coconut farmers, the law was nothing but a continuation of the president’s swindling ways.
The exploited farmers were deprived of profit and benefits from the Trust Fund since 2015, and the act worsened the farmers’ situation further by compromising financial recovery via privatization and burdening them with excessive management fees.
Duterte appears to have a penchant for irony. In his regime, the food producers are made to starve, while the fascist pigs who slaughter them are fattened. Indeed, the budget that the agricultural sector needs is instead channelled to funding their brutal repression. Sama-samang Artista para sa Kilusang Agraryo (SAKA) reports the murderous Duterte regime has killed a total of 338 farmers.
DUTERTE ON THE ENVIRONMENT
Of course, the inutile president would not miss an opportunity to bring up his Imeldific Manila Bay destruction.
Far from restoring the glory of Manila Bay, the P654 million-funded dolomite beach is both mental health and nature-wrecking.
Back in 2020, the UP Marine Science Institute already poured cold water on the notion that the dolomite sand grains will solve the bay’s environmental problems. On the contrary, aside from easily eroding, the UP marine scientists cautioned its health risks and marine environment damages it might pose.
These warnings no doubt reached the president, who even admitted that it will constantly be washed away. Nevertheless, it did not and will not stop him from resorting to superficial solutions, similar to his pandemic response.
DUTERTE ON ABS-CBN / PRESS FREEDOM
While supposedly refraining from being vengeful, the vindictive president did not mince his rehashed tirades and false accusations against the ABS-CBN Corporation.
Duterte recycled once again the false tax evasion accusations against the country’s biggest media network. However, he went on to recount his vendetta against the said network for deliberately not airing his paid advertisements and indicting his family including his daughter on drug allegations—accusations already disproven countless times in the hearings regarding the franchise issue.
The president, who has been unwilling to file his SALN since 2018, claimed that ABS-CBN cheated the government “by the billions in taxes” for failing to include in their tax return their alleged 40 hectares compound.
Aside from that, the network’s compound is only 4.4 hectares. The trumped-up tax evasion charges were already belied by his own Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) since last year.
In prioritizing an unfounded vindication against ABS-CBN amid a health crisis, the self-serving president let thousands go unemployed, enabled negative multiplier effects to the surrounding businesses and enterprises, and denied much-needed media coverage especially in far flung areas. Not to mention the chilling effect the shutdown made for other media networks.
DUTERTE ON AN “INDEPENDENT” FOREIGN POLICY
In pivoting the discussion towards international relations, Duterte reminded the people of his weakness over the West Philippine Sea (WPS) incursion despite peddling an “independent” foreign policy.
This is a stark contrast to his claims of asserting “what is rightfully ours and fight for what is rightfully due for the Filipino people.” Empty were words of hubris he relayed before the UN General Assembly and the ASEAN last year regarding preserving sovereignty.
The inutile Duterte who knows this fact very well himself was surprised by the applause from the clown-filled Congress after claiming to have absolute sovereignty. “Sigurado kayo sa pinalakpakan niyo?” probed Duterte.
After indulging in his rehashed Balangiga bells tale, he rapidly backpedaled minutes later on his “independent” foreign policy by calling what he just claimed an indelible arbitral ruling from international law as non-binding before proceeding to lawyer for China.
Riding again on the tides of false dichotomy between war and protecting our sea, Duterte repeated his claim that there is nothing the nation can do against China. A claim numerous times disproven by international law experts with the likes of retired Senior Associate Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio and UP Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea Director Atty. Jay Batongbacal.
However, like a fish caught in his own dirty mouth, Duterte revealed that he only protects his “friend” whom he said he first called during the first days of the pandemic to ask for medical and recently, vaccine supplies.
He then proceeded to assert the paramount importance of “utang na loob” for him, so much so, more important than an “independent” foreign policy.
Indeed, Duterte is perhaps the fiercest lapdog China could ever fetch.
DUTERTE ON COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND PUBLIC HEALTH
Among the last issues tackled and evidently the least prioritized, COVID-19 pandemic matters were only discussed two hours into his ramblings.
Not long after saying another stricter lockdown is unaffordable, Duterte did not lay any concrete measure aside from a probable heightened lockdown due to what he called the “COVID-D.”
“COVID-D” or the Delta variant is yet another addition to the growing collection of viruses the regime callously waited to enter before making any steps.
Not learning from last year, unmentioned were the other necessary measures to keep off the virulent disease aside from vaccines which remain elusive. What he only vowed was to allocate more budget for more shots and build a “Center for Disease Prevention and Control and the Virology and Vaccine Institute of the Philippines”—the same broken promises he gave last year’s SONA.
Duterte’s SONA provides us a clear picture of Duterte’s misplaced priorities—clearly not the ongoing pandemic, and certainly not the welfare of the Filipino people.
WHERE ARE WE HEADED?
Who lies before the nation is evident, but what lies ahead us is still in the balance.
Duterte’s ouster is only a matter of time. If anything, the final SONA has only proven that we cannot afford to delay ousting Duterte another minute, much less another year. Every day that passes is a day the fascist strikes. The streets bore witness to the resounding call of the people to make Duterte pay for his unforgivable sins. It will also bear witness to the approaching day of reckoning.
There is hope in the unwavering Filipino spirit that the nation will rise as yet another tyrant falls.
Featured image courtesy of Ted Aljibe; edited by Jewel Christopher Politico
