First 100 days: Rody focuses on drugs, Leni on poverty

There’s no one to hold at night and the routine of the country’s most powerful man is “work, eat, sleep.” But these personal longings do not seem to affect the toughness of President Duterte, who vowed to pursue his bloody war against illegal drugs to the end, as he marked his first 100 days in office.

Vice President Leni Robredo is not as personal as Duterte when she talks. A widow and living with her three daughters, Robredo is always focused on her programs to alleviate the plight of the poor and how people should learn to feel and not just understand their concerns.

Despite admitting that he has several partners, Duterte reiterated on Friday he would find himself alone in his official residence after work and could not even enjoy dinner with his many responsibilities.

The members of the First Family, including his live-in partner, Honeylet Avancena, are all in Davao City.

The tough talking leader, faced with criticisms for his bloody war against illegal drugs, earlier said he could no longer court anyone at 71 as it was obvious that women would want him for his money and not his body.

And there is nothing that he can hide anymore, or so it seems. “I do not have privacy because you are not supposed to lock your door. You are not allowed to do that…I don’t know why. I suppose if there’s a robber, they can immediately arrest but that’s the rationale of the life of a President. Beyond that there is nothing,” Duterte said.

When he retires to his room, the President shared he would find the time to read all the folders sent by the departments to his desk.

“Every time, every night there is a folder there…and I have to read it,” Duterte said, noting he was very careful in approving documents or placing marginal notes or suffer the fate of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was jailed while being prosecuted for an alleged irregularity at the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

Some of the evidence used against Arroyo for plunder were the marginal notes on the documents she signed involving PCSO funds.

According to Duterte, his earliest time to call it a day “on the average is at two o’clock.”

“Then I wake up because my day starts at one (in the afternoon). So, I attend to all the business of the government. Again, I go home. I do not eat dinner just finger food (like) sandwiches,” Duterte said.

“That’s the routine…it’s lonely. Alone. I could not embrace these guards because they’re men,” the President said.

There were occasions though that some female aides would accompany him to his home in Malacañang.

“But they go home after making sure that I got home alive. After that, if I die in my sleep, they really wouldn’t care,” Duterte added.

In his first few days, the President complained of boredom inside the Palace as it contrasted sharply with the time when he was mayor of Davao City and able to move around at night to meet people or conduct business.

Duterte said it was more fun when he was younger, as he recounted that many of his Cabinet secretaries excelled academically during their school days, including Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade and Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay.

“Our planners, like Piñol, and other members of the Cabinet are all bright. They are all cum laudes… Ako lang ang bugok diyan sa totoo

lang (I am the only dullard in that group)…I was the only one lagging behind because I enjoyed my elementary and high school days,” Duterte said. “When they were studying very hard I was enjoying my life taking most of my time. Mas maganda kasi ang kabataan mo kaysa dito sa… presidency ( Youth is better than this… presidency)? Susmaryosep! If you only knew,” Duterte recounted to the amusement of those who attended the National Banana Congress in Davao City Friday night.

Margins of society

In her first 100 days in office, Robredo visited coastal villages, indigenous people groups and other communities in far-flung areas of the country almost every week since assuming her post on June 30.

Called laylayan events, the Vice President, who campaigned with a promise of helping those in the fringes of society, said it enabled her and her team to understand the problems and provide specific solutions by seeking partnerships with various sectors.

Appointed as chair of the Housing and Urban Development and Coordinating Council, Robredo also personally inspected government housing projects, such as in areas affected by Super Typhoon Yolanda in November 2013.

Last month, with the support of Duterte, the Vice President met with officials of other government agencies such as the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Commission on Audit to address the slow-paced implementation of the housing projects.

She pledged to work on hastening the processing of papers for government housing projects.

As she tries to redefine the functions of her office, Robredo underscored the complexity of the issue of poverty and the need to address it on different fronts.

Over 26 million Filipinos are poor, with another 12 million experiencing extreme hunger, Robredo said, citing latest reports.

“But going by mere numbers puts us at risk of forgetting the ordinary Filipino who suffers from the brutal injustice of poverty. Statistics can unwittingly erase the face of the poor Filipino and render them invisible,” Robredo said.