‘ The best is yet to come’
MALACAÑANG on Saturday promised that “the best is still to come” for the Philippines, as President Rodrigo Duterte marked the halfway point in his six-year term.
Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo said much had been accomplished by the Duterte administration in the past three years.
“The Filipino people can expect the same number of significant achievements, if not more, in the remainder of the President’s term,” Panelo said in a statement.
“Even as the majority of the Filipinos are in awe of PRRD’s ( President Rodrigo Roa Duterte) accomplishments, the best is still to come,” he added.
Panelo said the President’s record “speaks for itself.”
He heaped praises on Duterte, saying the Chief Executive “has attained countless and incomparable feats.”
These, he said, include reducing the rate of criminality to an “incredible” low figure; dismantling the illegal drug industry and apparatus with the voluntary surrender of more than a million drug personalities; initiating strategies and measures to thwart the local communist rebellion from spreading; and crushing the attempts of terrorists from different parts of the globe.
“While the President has given priority to the improvement of peace and order in the country, he laid the foundation that will propel the nation to progress and reach new heights,” Panelo said.
“With an unprecedented political will, genuine empathy, as well as relentless resolve to uplift the general welfare of the people, he signed long- pending bills into laws, issued executive measures like free tuition in state universities and colleges, free irrigation to farmers, free internet access in public places, institutionalization of feeding programs for public school students, the Universal Health Care program, free medicines and financial support to indigent patients, mandatory PhilHealth ( Philippine Health Insurance Corp.) coverage for persons with disabilities, [ and] huge and unparalleled subsidies in favor of government hospitals,” he added.
Panelo also cited as Duterte’s achievements the increase of Social Security System pensions, the doubling of the salaries of soldiers, police officers, jail officers and firefighters, prohibition on illegal labor subcontracting, and establishment of work- from- home arrangements.
“The Chief Executive also signed into law measures aimed at reducing poverty, e. g., the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program and the Magna Carta of the Poor, to uplift the standard of living of those belonging to the underprivileged class of our society,” he said.
The President, according to Panelo, distributed Certificates of Land Ownership Award to thousands of agrarian reform beneficiaries and farmers and repatriated thousands of Overseas Filipino Workers ( OFWs) affected by amnesty programs implemented by several countries.
The President, he said, “made the Philippines one of the strongest economies and growth leaders in the region, by changing its business climate that prompted the influx of foreign investments thereby ushering the golden age of infrastructure in the country with his Build Build Build Program.”
“Under his leadership, the Philippines earned the highest credit rating in our economic history with a BBB+ upgrade from global debt watcher Standard and Poor’s,” Panelo said.
“The President has similarly intensified revenue collections of the government to new recordhighs, including the collection of around P6 billion from Philippine Airlines for overdue navigational fees and the landmark settlement by the government of about P40 billion with Mighty Corp. for the latter’s failure to pay excise taxes,” he added.
Also among Duterte’s achievements was the signing of the Bangsamoro Organic Law to transform Mindanao from “an island of promise” to “an island of fulfillment.”
“After the successful plebiscite that established the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the normalization under the comprehensive agreement on the Bangsamoro is now on track,” Panelo said.
The President also promoted and protected the environment by ordering the clean- up of Boracay and Manila Bay, and prohibiting open- pit mining.
“The President has done all these in his three years of national service, while giving his critics and detractors the free space to air their grievances,” Panelo said.
“Despite the political noise and virulent black propaganda against him and his family, initiated by his political enemies, he has not filed a single case against them,” he added.