A ‘roller coaster’ ride — Duterte
WHILE he refused to assess his own performance thus far, President Rodrigo R. Duterte told reporters in an interview this week that being the country’s highest official has been a “roller coaster” ride.
Mr. Duterte, 72, marks his first year as President today, Friday, June 30. It was on Thursday last year, on that date, that he was sworn in as the sixth president of the post Marcosera Fifth Republic and the first president from Mindanao.
Indeed, it has been an up- and- down ride for Mr. Duterte’s first 12 months in Malacañang after he stirred a hornet’s nest by berating traditional treaty allies and picking a fight with critics of his deadly drug war.
Nonetheless, he has also made good on some of his campaign promises.
‘POLITICAL WILL’
“It has been an extraordinary year, highly audacious, very productive, and marked by political will,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto C. Abella told BusinessWorld in an e-mail interview.
“Only a year into (the) (p)residency and much (has) been done by his administration. (H)owever, the President is continuously working hard to further improve and achieve his goal of giving the Filipino people a secure and comfortable life,” Mr. Abella also said.
Mr. Duterte’s administration has so far been marked by his implementation of policies that replicate on a national level existing laws in Davao City where he was mayor for more than two decades — including the deadly drug war, a nationwide smoking ban, and an executive order on freedom of information that is now being tested to verify the drug war’s body count.