Halili, M. (2016). President cracks whip on criminality. InterAksyon.

com

Letting go, embracing change and moving forward

All eyes and ears in the country are all set in President Rodrigo Dutertes first
State of the Nation Address at Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City last July 25,
2016 (Monday). The much-anticipated SONA 2016 started at exactly 4:07 in the
afternoon and concluded after 1 hour and 32 minutes (5:39 p.m.). President Duterte
delivered his speech in front of lawmakers, politicians, government officials, former
presidents of the Philippines, businessmen, ordinary citizens and guests.

Dutertes powerful speech said to be the first longest SONA in the history. It
was part reiteration of his campaign promises, part bold instructions to government
officials and institutions and part ad lib. Also the speech was centered on the
policies, programs and reforms that Duterte administration wants to pursue.

Many analysts said, Dutertes SONA speech was sincere, entertaining and
compassionate. Presidential Communication Secretary Martin Andanar emphasizes
that It is a very powerful speech personally written by the President that will awaken
the patriot in every Filipino. Dutertes SONA has a strong message of change for
every Filipinos. It was a powerful and influential speech; and yet entertaining
because of the adlibs, wits and cracking of jokes.

But there are lots of changes happened in the first SONA event of President
Duterte those are: (1) There are no traditional grand red carpet fashion show by
members of the Congress. Everyone in the plenary can wear business attire in order
to shift the peoples focus on Presidents message. In the previous SONA,
everybody who will attend is required in Filipino casual attire such as Barong
Tagalog and Barot Saya. (2) Our newly elected President Duterte is welcome by
speaker of the house, senate president, majority and minority leaders in the
entourage. There are no formal extending ones hand (shake hands) and greetings
from the congressmen. (3) There is no prestige festive in the celebration. All foods

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Halili, M. (2016). President cracks whip on criminality. InterAksyon.com

are well prepared in a simple Filipino cuisine. And lastly, (4) first time in the history of
SONA that militant groups (rallyists) are allowed to stage their rally near the Batasan
Complex. Only center aisle separated the police forces and the left-wing
demonstrators, who happened to be on the side of the government this time. This
causality was another first time because they called mass action kilos-suporta
rather than kilos-protesta.

At the outset, Duterte pointed out that all three leaders facing Congress and
the nation Senate President Aquilino Koko Pimentel, House Speaker Pantaleon
Alvarez and the President himself are all from Mindanao. That is a sign of fresh
efforts to address the decades-long neglect of the southern Philippine region while it
tries to deal with festering armed conflicts and underdevelopment.

Our president address that he wants a simple administration within his term.
President Duterte said, We cannot move forward if we allow the past to pull us
back. Finger pointing is not the way. That is why I will not waste precious time
dwelling on the sins of the past." There is no blame game in his administration. He
reiterated that way of acceptance and letting go is one of the nation leaders needs to
implement to have a clear mind in doing difficult task for the country.

Each of us always wanted change. It is something viable, but why is it always

hard to achieve? Until our newly elected President Rodrigo Duterte made us realize
that real change is coming. All Filipinos anticipated in his first speech and sooner or
later we will see changes slowly coming.

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Halili, M. (2016). President cracks whip on criminality. InterAksyon.com

SONA really set change

The first SONA highlighted the urgency for change for the benefits of the
Filipinos. This includes war in illegal drugs and criminalities, anti-corruption
campaign, pushing federalism, solution on Metro Manila traffic and more jobs for the
Filipinos.

President Duterte started his speech in explaining that we Filipinos cannot

move forward if we still insist the happenings in the past. Our president wants to
move forward towards solutions to the problems of the society. He will not blame
those who leave remarkable difficulties in our country but he will use it to make a
change, a real change that will help each Filipino lives better.

On the first part of his address, President Duterte reiterated equal protection,
separation between God and state and human rights. Our president wants to assure
that vindictiveness is not his system. There must be an equal treatment and equal
protection for all the Filipinos despite of status quo in life, either rich or poor. His
administration is sensitive to the States obligation to promote protection, fulfill the
rights of the citizens, especially the poor and marginalize social justice to prevail all
the time. President Duterte is known as Mr. Punisher, he is a man whos eager to
protect the lives of his fellowmen towards criminalities and bad people. And to those
who are forsaken, they must the right and just justice on what happened to them.
Next, he voiced out that in his administration there will never be a separation
between God and state. Humanities and church must unite towards the betterment
of our country. And lastly, human rights must work to uplift dignity. Human rights
cant be used as a shield or excuse to destroy the country.

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Halili, M. (2016). President cracks whip on criminality. InterAksyon.com

Duterte administration wants to improve peoples welfare through the areas of

education, adequate food and water, housing, environmental preservation and
respect for culture. Many factors are also address in President Dutertes speech,
those are: Anti-criminality, peace and order, public service, environment, health and
technology.

Great combatant against illegal drugs

President Duterte calls the attention of the local government officials and
Philippine National Police to double the efforts in fighting against illegal drugs. He
vowed to double and even triple the efforts against this criminality until the last drug
lord, last financer and last drug pusher have been surrendered and putted into jail.
Also our president asked the National Police Commission or NAPOLCOM to fast
track the investigation against police officers whom allegedly involved in illegal
activities and warned all those who are involved in illegal drugs. He assures that
within his administration, he well prioritize those people caught into drugs and to put
under governments drug rehabilitation program. Truly our president is serious about
war against crime and drugs. But happening right now are the rampant of blood-
shedding process of catching pushers and drug lords. If it is the only way to clean
our country from abusers of drugs, then let it be. Results of this development will
unfold the future of the next generation.

Strengthen peace and order

After a blood-shedding process of cathcing illegal drug users, our president is

only after Filipinos welfare and in the end of the day; he wants peace that
everybody is longing for. President Duterte affirmed peaceful talk to Bangsamoro
Basic Law or BBL, Bangsamoro people, indigenous people and other groups for
security, development, fair access to decision-making and acceptance of identities.

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Halili, M. (2016). President cracks whip on criminality. InterAksyon.com

Also the continuation of resolving the issue in West Philippine Sea still remains. The
full force of Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will continue to strengthen the
counter-terrorism programs amending various laws on human terrorism, terrorism
financing and cybercrime. President Duterte also said enduring peace can be only
attained if we meet the fundamental needs of every man, woman and child. All of us
want peace and our president is ready to take charge regarding this matter. He is
willing and ready to negotiate but he wants everybody to prepare and load guns and
fix each sights when peace negotiation are cant obtain and pull the trigger of the
Filipinos. We need to stop violence and restore peace in every community providing
a conducive environment. For the ceasefire that he declared, it is clearly evident that
he wants to have peace between one group to another.

Improving economic factors in public service

Improving economic factors in public service and government is also a strong

factor to President Dutertes administration. He insisted to lower the personal and
corporate taxes; sufficient income for all Filipinos to meet their basic needs, more
job offerings to every Filipinos, solution of worst traffic situation that needs to be
address immediately and processing of public documents must be up to three (3)
days only. People nowadays tend to wait on long cue lines in processing documents.
Our president ordered each government offices to have a faster and more effective
way of rendering services to the public; this involves applying and renewal
documents.

Also, President Duterte wants to build access roads to service centers,

improving roads and bridges and put up new pumping stations in strategic places.
He also promises that train tickets will soon be readily and easily accessible. This
will also pursue railway projects in Metro Manila and railway extensions to
provinces. Also he wants to have free access of WiFi in selected public places.

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Halili, M. (2016). President cracks whip on criminality. InterAksyon.com

Eradication of environmental problems

Our president wants to totally eliminate or to lessen environmental problems

and issues that hinders from saving our Mother Earth. He stated that the DENR
should review the permits that they have given those who are doing the logging and
mining. Now is the time to minimize the exploitations that we are doing to our
environment. In one way or another, this action is also a call to respond in the global
environmental problems that we have. We are looking forward in Dutertes
administration for a greener forestry, clean air, and healthy environment. In a much
specific way, the president also stated something about the finding solutions for the
flooding in Metro Manila as well as in nearby places. Filipinos would like to
experience typhoons with flood, without worrying where to evacuate people due to
these calamities, and without the population decreasing due to different accidents.

Health matters

Due to the amount of hospitalization plus amount of medicine, the president is

now introducing the Universal Health Insurance whereas every Filipino people will
be eligible to get one. This will ensure that whoever is sick will be able attended by
the appropriate treatment. Another thing is the rice subsidy given by DSWD to the
family of poor Filipinos. Through this action, we can now ensure that there is no
reason for people to be hungry. And lastly, the responsible parenthood and
reproductive health law, this action will make the parents more responsible for their

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Halili, M. (2016). President cracks whip on criminality. InterAksyon.com

children, so that they may be able to nourish them as how they should be. President
Duterte calls for the full implementation of the Reproductive Health (RH) Law.

Technology improvements

Technology is one of the important aspects in life in the new generation today.
President Duterte implemented solutions in technology such as development of the
National Broadband Plan and the free Wifi Access to public places. This will not only
improve our way of communicating but also it will make school tasks easy to do in
an efficient, time-saving, and effective way for the students. We are a generation
that belongs to the digital natives. Everything that we do is always associated with
technology, so having this promised improvement will really make a big difference in
our way of doing things.

Dont disappoint us Mr. President

We have a president whos ready to be a leader. His love for our country is
genuine. We Filipinos hope for all the promises he made in the speech for the better
of Philippine society. All changes will be implemented to help the Philippines to
compete globally and to be a high standard economic country. We all look forward to

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Halili, M. (2016). President cracks whip on criminality. InterAksyon.com

the promises of his administration. Filipinos are hoping that President Duterte is not
one of the people whose puro salita lamang. But through in his deliberation of
speech, our president wants to prove anything and everything more than he said. He
really wants to prove that real change is coming for every Filipinos.

Our president cant do it alone. Each Filipino must be a partner for change.
Lets do our part now as citizens of this country. The president is leading us in the
right clear direction. The future lies in the hands of this administration. Lets all move
forward for the more progress and development of this country, our country.

Nevertheless, his speech was straightforward, precise and delivered a strong

message to the Filipino people. Let us help this government. President Duterte
cannot solve our multitude of problems alone. One key is change. And let this
change must start amongst us. 91% of Filipinos trusted our newly President Rodrigo
Duterte to lead our country. Lets keep each others hand in working and investing
towards a great and bright future of the Philippines. Mabuhay ang Pilipino!

Halili, M. (2016). President cracks whip on criminality. InterAksyon.com 8