(My FB Post on July 23, 2018 as a reaction to the State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte)
The President stood there today saying more powerful and hardhitting words than expletives. More than anything else – HE STOOD THERE FOR US AGAINST POWERFUL SECTORS which Business INVOLVE MILLIONS and BILLIONS – Making himself VULNERABLE and a MOVING TARGET for PEOPLE who ONLY CARE ABOUT THEIR OWN INTERESTS –
He stood there for US against ILLEGAL LABOR CONTRACTORS by saying ENDO must stop
He stood there for US against the biggest TRIADS of CHINA (he actually named one) and others who no longer deal with drugs by the MILLION but by the BILLIONS (and has a very organized network of delivery system via “tingi” which he find unbelievable to have reach the provinces (Oh yeah, Mr President, heard about these drugs being inserted in siopao or movie theaters as bagsakans and public officials as distributors?)
He stood up for us against the TELCO Doupoly whose assets are huge, it will be hard to stand against them especially when you have politicians approving the third TELCO process but needing campaign funds
He stood up against rice cartels, hoarders and protectors which is tantamount to as he calls “economic sabotage”. I can just imagine the huge capital of these syndicates.
He stood up against the all powerful mining industry, companies exploiting our aquatic and mineral resources and watershed protected areas and told them to clean up their mess
He stood up against IMPERIAL MANILA for the sake of Mindanao and cities who have not been benefited by the 1987 Consitution which over centralized the sharing of power and taxes in the national government
He stood there for the ones he call as his Muslim Brothers and uphold the Bangsamoro Law, citing there are many criticsms against it but he wants to take the Road to Peace rather than the Road to War, learning he said from the Marawi experience.
He stood up against big multi-national companies who do not wish to see the MSMEs or small businesses have equal chances to compete with them by giving more incentives to MSMEs
He stood for the middle class who can only earn a few thousands every month and say they can keep more savings because they will be exempt from income tax but for those whose luxury extend to so many vices – taxes will be up
He stood up for ordinary coconut farmers and the agriculture industry, for families needing subsidy, improvement of tertiatry education, despite the rigid educational system that has become a business
He stood there for us against unscrupulous medical centers and hospitals who suck the blood out of even poor people by immediately ordering the passage of the universal healthcare law
He stood there for us against fixers, corrupt and incompetent agencies who continously milk ordinary citizens and businesses as a result of inefficient and slow transactions systems by warning them about the implementation of the Ease of Doing Business Law
He stood for everyone who had continously propagated a unitary system of government and never gave fedralism a chance so that cities can forge their own future.
By openly endorsing the ConCom Constitution Draft, he also openly declared war again politicians who favor dynasty and political clans who do not wish to see each region vote for two senators each. These clans are powerful. They can crush the president anytime.
I am sharing this because I am sure the PRESIDENT will have “millions” of ENEMIES starting tonight and BILLIONS worth of possibilities to really end up failing as he said in his conclusion. His mouth is really going to cause him more trouble this time.
He just tripled his number of enemies today. And I am sure these sectors can afford to pay experts to further put him in bad light. I learned early in life (well in a movie) that the most dangerous men in the world are not politicians, but businessmen. Especially businessmen with political interests.
We can all hate this old guy all we want for his lack of refinement, his biases, his inconsistencies, his craziness, his senility – but today, he stood up for us.
Who is going to shield him from these high powered “bullets” of business interests?
Note: The post garnered more than 2,300 likes, more than 100 comments and 1,300 shares. It was also carries by some news sites and was shared several thousands times
Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/jocellebatapasigue/posts/10215308569965977
Jocelle Batapa Sigue 