Duterte gets high marks in drug war
Less than two weeks before President Duterte delivers his third State of the Nation Address (SONA), Malacañang has given the administration a high performance grade in carrying out the war on illegal drugs.
“Ako po siguro bibigyan ko siya ng mga 8.5. Marami pa pong dapat magawa,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said in a press conference in Cavite, when asked to rate the government’s anti-drug campaign from a scale of 1 to 10.
Roque took pride of the significant strides in the government’s campaign against drugs and crimes by keeping communities safe and peaceful.
“Even the surveys will indicate na majority of our people, 80 plus of our people feel safer, they feel more secure in their homes dahil nga po dito sa [because of our] drive against criminality and the war against drugs,” he said.
The President is expected to deliver a national address before a joint session of Congress on July 23. The annual SONA is a chance for the country’s leader to highlight the government’s accomplishments in the past year and plans for the coming year.
Roque said the President has decided he would read his prepared SONA, which would not exceed 35 minutes.
He earlier said Duterte was expected to speak “straight from the heart” in his forthcoming national address. He said the President might no longer talk about the administration’s achievements since these would be discussed in the pre-SONA briefings by respective Cabinet clusters.
Last year, the President delivered a two-hour SONA, reading portions of the prepared speech and delivering off-the-cuff comments. Duterte’s fiery second public address focused on several issues ranging from the war on drugs, mining, communist insurgency, to his legislative agenda and critics.