FROM being dubbed as the “wild, wild south” of the Philippines decades ago, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte earlier this week bared his principles and deeply-held beliefs which served as his guide in converting Davao City as among the Top Ten Most Livable in the World.
During the General Membership Meeting of the Bankers Institute of the Philippines held at the Dusit Hotel, Makati City, Duterte enumerated his “Articles of Faith.”
“Let me tell you what I believe in, what I stand for,” Duterte said in a speech read for him by his political adviser LitoBanayo. “A leader (1) Must maintain law and order, (2) Must always listen to the people he leads; and (3) Must uplift the lives of the marginalized by operating with utter bias for the poor.”
Duterte explained the importance of these three principles but emphasized that Davao City could not have achieved the progress it attained were it not for the cooperation of its residents. “Let me tell you that this happened not because I was at the helm of the city, rather, because of the collective sense of purpose and cooperation of all the people of Davao.”
He added that the effort of transitioning from a violent and lawless past to an orderly and peaceful present was not easy. “It meant imposing upon ourselves, and teaching our children, the values of discipline, pride of place, and unity towards a common good and the right direction.”
When he first won as Davao City Mayor in 1988, Duterte said that one of the first things he did was meet with the group of businessmen from Southeastern Mindanao and made a covenant with them. According to their agreement, Duterte will take care of the peace and order as well as provide for the basic services, while the business group will take care of the business sector and invite more investors into the city.
Duterte added that applications for business permits are approved within 72 hours, since there are no bribes or under-the-table deals. “The mayor asks for nothing in return, be it a condominium unit or bags of cash. Because the mayor is not on the take, nobody else in the city government dares,” he pointed out.
“From the poor we have learned that giving them and their children the opportunity to advance in life, by ensuring access to better education and health services, and protecting them from criminals and the abusive, is the best way to maintain their loyalty and their faithful compliance with the law,” the mayor said.
On the law and order issue, Duterte will focus on the following important matters: “Ensure that criminals are afraid of the law; Repeal laws now used by criminal themselves to avert punishment like the Juvenile Delinquency Law; Re-impose death penalty for heinous crimes; Ensure children of OFWs are safe while their parents are abroad earning a living; Swift and fair justice for all.”
On the business side, Duterte said he will push for easier business registration, so that more jobs will be created and poverty eliminated. He added that airport should be renovated and trains must not only be on time but must, more importantly, be safe.
Duterte lamented that these improvements should have all been done decades ago but refrained from pointing fingers as to who should be blamed. “You are business executives. You cannot go to your board of directors each time and say you did not meet your targets because of the mess you inherited when you assumed your positions. You should know what you are getting into. If you can’t hack it, be honest… don’t seek the office,” he said.
The Presidential hopeful from Mindanao also mentioned that overspending is not the solution to economic recovery. “It is a matter of spending right — in the right priorities, and with a right sense of urgency.”
He added that if the whole of Mindanao were only peaceful, its fertile plains and plentiful sources of water can feed the whole of Luzon and Mindanao, and lamented the fact that that a country surrounded by seas could have fish but are unaffordable to the poorest of the poor.
With respect to uplifting the lives of the marginalized, Duterte said that government, in tandem with the private sector should help each other to keep the prices of food stable. “Food security must be a major priority. We make our farms more productive and give farmers higher incomes. We not only ensure food availability; we also temper food inflation. But over and above these, we are able to address countryside poverty.”
Duterte said that he will ask the businessmen to seriously practice corporate social responsibility by helping manage collectivized farms of agrarian reform beneficiaries so that there will be economies of scale.
At the end of his speech, Duterte stressed that, “And IF, (that’s still an IF), I should be tasked by the people to lead, I will within the first year in office, call for a Constitutional Convention to effect change in our form and structure of government. We must change the present highly-centralized, unitary system into a federal system.”
“We should realize that bigger nations have their own interests to advance, we should always act in defense of the interests of our nation and our people, no more and no less,” Duterte’s speech concluded.
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