Duterte says his administration will continue and maintain current macroeconomic policies, and will achieve this through prudent fiscal and monetary policies that can help translate high growth into more and better job creation and poverty reduction.
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In a nationally broadcast address to the joint session of Congress, Duterte said he would pursue a diplomatic solution to the Philippines’ dispute with China over territory in the South China Sea after an global tribunal recently ruled in favor of Manila – a decision that angered Beijing.
There were no dramatisations and testimonials during Mr Duterte’s speech, a feature of past presidential addresses. “We will not stop until the last drug lord, the last financier, or the last pusher is put behind bars or below the ground if they so wish”, he said.
Prior to taking office, the former Davao city mayor made the war on drugs as part of a campaign which secured his landslide victory in the general elections in May.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte: “I will retire with the reputation of Idi Amin”.
For the first time in the country’s history of Sona, militant groups were allowed to go within 800 meters of the sprawling House of Representatives compound to hear Duterte deliver his report.
“We can not move forward if we allow the past to pull us back”.
Duterte describes himself as a socialist and was a student of Sison, a political science professor, at a Manila university in the 1960s.
In a surprising move, Mr Duterte declared a “unilateral ceasefire” with communist rebels.
In his Sona, Mr. Duterte stressed that “human rights must work to uplift human dignity, but human rights can not be used as a shield or as an excuse to destroy the country”.
Government negotiators have met with rebel counterparts and agreed to restart peace talks in the next few months. “Not the peace of the dead, but the peace of the living”.
The Duterte administration’s pursuit towards a simpler, more equitable and more efficient tax system was also lauded by Sen. The military’s might, he said, “will be applied to crush these criminals, who operate under the guise of religious fervor”.
Duterte’s warning to drug dealers and rogue officials and policemen was harsh.
Overall, Soco said, they welcomed the president’s message because it had given them optimism that meaningful change could be done in government. Church groups in the largely Catholic nation, rights advocates and some sections of the media have criticised the war on crime and expressed alarm at what they have termed extrajudicial killings.
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Human Rights Watch deputy director for Asia Philem Kine warned that Duterte’s recent pronouncements endanger the lives of Filipinos as they may fall victims to “state-sanctioned murder”.
