Batas Mauricio
SO, okay, former President Ramos is not satisfied with the performance of President Duterte during the first 100 days of the Duterte government. According to Ramos, Duterte focused principally on the illegal drug trade, virtually leaving out issues on poverty, living costs, jobs, and foreign investment.
The question, however, is this: is there a factual basis for the claim of Ramos that nothing has been done by the Duterte government about poverty, living costs, jobs, and foreign investments during its first 100 days? It is significant to note that what Ramos offered in support of his claims are mere generalizations, without appropriate data to back him up.
This is dangerous as it is misleading, especially since it came from someone who, for all intents and purposes on account of his being Duterte’s personal representative on the South China Sea row, is a part of the Duterte government. People may entertain---as indeed, many, especially from those who oppose Duterte, are now entertaining the possibility that Duterte really failed in his first 100 days, as what Ramos said.
I mean, it is one thing to say that nothing is being done about something, and another to say that nothing is being reported about what the government is actually doing to address the many problems that have been inherited by President Duterte from past administrations, including that of Ramos.
What, to me, is happening at this point, is that, each and every department of government under the Duterte administration are discharging their respective duties and responsibilities, in an attempt to achieve the goals set out by President Duterte when he assumed the presidency on June 30, 2016.
Let us take the example of the Department of Agriculture, under the leadership of Secretary Manny Pinol. In July, he ordered the release to farmers and their organizations some P2 billion worth of farm equipment and machineries, which were simply kept and undistributed under the Aquino government. This certainly empowered farmers and their organizations towards greater agricultural production.
Then, in line with Duterte’s objective of taking away our people’s fascination and dependence on gambling, the Duterte government decisively shut down a company whose franchise allowed it to operate gambling facilities through the Internet, also during its first 100 days.
The company is still trying to win back its franchise but at this point, gambling through its outlets or stations have been stopped. There is no doubt that removing gambling from our people’s way of life would improve their lives better, with more productive use of the time that they have been spending on games of chance.
On peace and order, crime and criminality have gone down tremendously. What is more, crimes attributable to insurgency in the countryside have decreased dramatically, in the light of the on-going peace talks with various rebel groups who have fought the Philippine government for so long a time. If one is objective enough, it is not difficult to appreciate what Duterte has done in his first 100 days.
E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com
