His second State of the Nation Address (SONA), delivered on July 24, was classic Rodrigo Roa Duterte—the President, the mayor of 23 years, the earnest public servant, and an angry, sometimes cranky if largely a warm and humorous senior citizen.
The speech sprawled over two hours and six minutes and over 12,000 words. It was applauded at least 71 times.
The SONA was shorn of lofty and elegant language and visioning that is more talk than walk. Duterte more than made up for that with plenty of expletives, ribald jokes, plainly spoken down to earth wisdom, and a warning to everyone and anyone who got his goat.
Two themes dominated the speech. War. Against illegal drugs. Against Muslim rebels and communist guerillas. Against corruption in government.
And peace. As in peace and order. “I have learned that economy surges only when there is peace and order prevailing in places where investors can pour [in] their capital and expertise,” the President declared.
Duterte is angry at many things. They include:
Illegal drugs. Illegal drugs, he said, are “the root cause of so much evil and so much suffering that weakens the social fabric and deters foreign investments from pouring in. The fight will be unremitting as it will be unrelenting.” He gives drug dealers “either jail or hell”. He will reimpose the death penalty on heinous crimes like illegal drugs, kidnapping, and rape.
“In the Philippines, it is really an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” he said.
The New People’s Army and the Muslim rebels. “I will persist in our goal of attaining peace [up] to the last day of this administration and maybe even beyond although in a different capacity,” he said.
To the communist guerillas, he fumed: “You do anarchy, I will order the soldiers and the police to shoot. Even if I have to bury thousands of Filipinos.”
Duterte told Jose Maria Sison (founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines) who he said is sick of colon cancer (Sison denies it) to come home and talk peace.
“There is rebellion in Mindanao,” Duterte insisted. “The extremists have declared it their purpose to establish a caliphate within Philippine territory along the teachings and beliefs of [the] Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or otherwise known as ISIS. The battle of Marawi has dealt a terrible blow to our quest for peace especially now that an alien ideology and a radical shift in purpose have been injected into the local setting.”
Duterte declared martial law against the Muslim rebels and terrorists in Marawi “to prevent them from spreading their gospel of hate and violence in the rest of Mindanao.” To the police and army fighting them, he assured, “I have your backs.”
Miners. “If possible, we shall put a stop to the extraction and exportation of our mineral resources to foreign nations [applause] for processing abroad and importing them back to the Philippines in the form of consumer goods at prices twice or thrice the value of the original raw materials foreign corporations pay for them,” he said.
He added: “I am warning all mining operations and contractors to refrain from the unbridled and irresponsible destruction of our watersheds, forests, and aquatic resources. You have gained much from mining, we only get about P70 billion a year, but you have considerably neglected your responsibility to protect and preserve – and even the tax, it’s about 5% – environment for posterity.”
“Declare your correct income [and] pay your correct taxes,” he told the miners.
The Americans. For not returning the Church bells of Balangiga town Eastern Samar which in 1901 US soldiers turned into “a howling wilderness” killing anyone moving and above ten years old. They seized the parish church’s three bells as spoils of war after Filipino guerillas, many dressed as women servants at breakfast, and armed with nothing more than bolos, dealt the Americans one of their biggest battlefield setbacks ever – 48 men dead in a single attack.
One bell is with the US 9th Infantry Regiment in South Korea. Two are with the 11th Infantry Regiment in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The Americans stole the bells as proof that they, not the Filipinos, won the Battle of Balangiga. West Point-trained President Fidel V. Ramos tried to get back at least one of the bells. Bill Clinton refused.
“Those bells are reminders of the gallantry and heroism of our forebears who resisted the American colonizers and sacrificed their lives in the process,” said Duterte. A day later, the US embassy promised to do something about the President’s demand to “give us back those Balangiga bells.”
Corruption in government. “Corruption persists like a fishbone stuck in the throat; it pains and it is disconcerting,” he conceded.
“We need to pry corruption from government corpus which is deeply embedded and we also need to put an end to squabbles and bickerings with all agencies focused truly on speedy provision of quality public services to our people,” Duterte said.
“I will never tolerate corruption in my administration, not even a whiff of it,” Duterte reminded bureaucrats.
He launched Hotline 8888 so citizens can complain and give feedback on corruption in government.
Duterte gives bureau directors to act on permits 15 days max. He told them to eat lunch in their offices.
Saying people’s and his patience are wearing thin, Duterte said “We want to ensure that our people receive the quality services that they deserve, minus the delays caused by bureaucratic red tape. I expect speedy reforms along this line.”
The Supreme Court and temporary restraining orders (TROs).
Duterte said an SC TRO stymied the Reproductive Health Law which has lasted two years and made medicines like subdermal implants for birth control expire.
LGUs. For red tape in processing permits and for LGUs in Metro Manila for not removing traffic obstructions in their streets to ease traffic flow.
By the way, China, Duterte acknowledged, “has committed to build two bridges to span Pasig River free of charge.”
The Senate. For holding up funds intended to solve traffic at EDSA and delaying his Tax Reform Law.
Addressing himself to Sen. Grace Poe, who is holding hearings on Transportation Secretary Art Tugade’s transport modernization program, the President seems to blame the Senate now for gridlock at Metro Manila’s main highway.
“I call on the Senate so support my tax reform in full and to pass it without haste,” he pleaded. Looking at Sonny Angara, the Senate Ways and Means Committee chair winnowing the tax bill, which will impose hefty increases on consumer goods like soft drinks and diesel, and on personal income, Duterte wondered why the London-educated senator was not clapping. Angara said later he didn’t hear the President’s angry statement.
“The poor and vulnerable are at the heart of my tax reform. Your support would ensure that the benefits of the tax reform can be felt immediately by them,” he told the senators attending the SONA rite.
Reacting to the SONA, Sen. Ralph Recto, himself a former economic planning secretary, said: “I look forward to Duterte being the builder-in-chief. Infrastructure needs close presidential supervision. It is time to pivot from a helmet presidency to a hardhat presidency.”
“A government focused on build, build, build will, hopefully, rewrite the national scoreboard, from tallying death, to counting roads built, jobs created, and poverty reduced,” Recto added
