PREFATORY STATEMENT

The centerpiece of Duterte’s campaign platform was

suppressing the three so-called evils: crime, illegal drugs and
corruption, which he believes are undermining security across all
sectors and hampering the growth of the domestic economy. He
pledged to instill discipline with an iron fist for everyone to adhere
to the rule of law and strengthen the country’s justice system.

All officials who occupied the highest position in the land

promulgated development plans, this is the summary of the
speeches during the 90 day long campaign period, these serves
as a guide albeit not mandatory but will serve as a basis for policy
making.

This political slogan touches the lives of all the Filipino

people thereby ensuring his presidency through landslide votes.
His victorious entrance in Malacanan was an assurance that
change is coming and true enough, changed happened in quite
period of time.

Despite the present structure of the government wherein the

seat of power is shared by three (3) departments but in our
political perspective, the seat of power is the presidency.

To reestablish law and order, he plans to launch a focused,

time-bound campaign against criminals, drug lords and corrupt
government officials through the joint efforts of the Philippine
National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines
(AFP).

Other than solving the crime and corruptions in the

Philippines, the president through cabinet secretaries formulated
economic reforms that were designed to make life easier for the
poor. Hence, AmBisyon Natin 2040: The Vision, Our Ambition.
PART 2- ENHANCING THE SOCIAL FABRIC

At some point, the people is beginning to trust the

government after seeing the will of the president to clean the
government by removing corrupt officials despite their political
affiliations to him. In other words, the pronouncement of the
president about graft and corruption is now becoming the word of
mouth of the people.

In nation building the trust of the people is necessary. There

can be no effective change without trust, and this is done by
enhancing the social fabric. However, most of the plans contained
in the development plan are but reiteration of programs that were
already in place. Simply put, the programs contained in the Tuwid
na daan of the previous administration was modified and copied
so that it will not sound as cut and paste. COA promulgated
measure to safeguard government funds providing therein
appropriate remedies in the event of violation. To attain a more
transparent government, the president signed the freedom of
information in the executive department providing therein the
manner by which transparency can be achieved. True enough,
and in collaboration with the Civil Service Commission, public
complaint desk is activated wherein complaints regardless of its
nature and the manner by which it is done were properly
investigated. Under the said program, all complaints are directly
addressed to the president who in turn will endorse the same to
the CSC for appropriate actions. The answer of the concern
agency will be forwarded to the Cabinet Secretary, and to ensure
compliance of the program, a system was develop to monitor the
same so that it will become effective.

However, with respect to the awarding of government

projects, it seems that the president is adamant in following the
law like the lowest calculated bid. According to him this provision
is not realistic and will lead only to substandard projects. Under
the law, a project should ideally be awarded to a juridical person
with a lowest calculated responsive bid, in other words it is not
always a rule that the lowest bidder will get the award but there
must be a prior BAC declaration whether the bid is responsive or
not.

The president wanted to win the approval of the Filipino

people by using harsh language during his public discourse and
this was effective as shown in the recent SWS survey. Regardless
of the controversy being hurled against his administration and the
manner by which he answer the questions being branded to him
gets the attention of the common people.

However, much has been said about the attitude of the

president and it seems that the international community is not in
favor to it. This situation brings the Philippines on the spot and
this is not sound management in a country such as ours whose
economy is still developing.

Moreover, the Ombudsman was very active in punishing

erring officials in the government by issuing suspension and
dismissing them in public service.

During the stint of the present Ombudswoman, many public

officials were removed and in fact was punished by the office
because of anomalous transactions they made but at the end of
the day the Ombudsman is reversed through Court actions on
appeal.

The perceived evil sought to be prevented by the

Ombudsman was achieved by through the efforts of the executive
department implementing therein the issuances of the
Ombudsman.

Pursuing Swift and Fair Administration of Justice

The independence of the judiciary is hampered because of

the pronouncement of the president directly against the Supreme
Court involving judges whom he accused to be a narco judge. This
exercise is not healthy in the government because this may send
a bad signal to the justices that all decisions should always
conform to the will of the president and no longer on the strength
of the merits of a case.

The president’s announcement produces instability in the

judiciary but some of them were vindicated when the
announcement was proven to be wrong and of no basis.

The president is very vocal about EJK when he said that he

will be held responsible on all complaints filed hurled against
police officers accused of doing wrong in support of his war
against drugs.

Cases were not filed in Court involving police officers

involved in EJK because the president himself is not doing
anything to at least minimize the impact of his war on drugs.

Promoting Philippine Culture and Values

A typical Filipino is not shouting invectives especially when it

is within the hearing of dignified people. But shouting invectives
and cursing people became so popular in the country because the
president is very fun of cursing people. Along this line, the
goodness of the Philippine culture is never promoted and the
values therein is now being forgotten because we have a leader
using invective as a mode of expressing his sentiment regarding a
particular problem.

The Marcos burial in the Libingan ng mga Bayani was one of

the most controversial decision of the president that resulted to
mass action and promoted culture of impunity. The burial seems
to be divisive considering its historical origin. The clamor says
Marcos is not a hero because the government is steadfast to
recognize the evils committed during the dark period of Philippine
democracy yet the president through the Department of National
Defense allowed Marcos to be interred in the Libingan ng mga
Bayani. In the same vein, despite clear characterization of the
Supreme Court about Marcos atrocities, dismissed the petition
question via certiorari the orders of the president allowing Marcos
to be buried at the Libingan.
In the Philippines, we don’t adhere to impunity. In criminal
law, a person is punished because of a felonious act, the law
recognize the fact that an individual is a rational man who by his
own can discern what is right and wrong. The Duterte
administration portrayed violence and death, civility is no longer
observed.

Civilization is not about beautiful surroundings but

civilization simply means compliance to the laws and orders
issued. Wanton disregard of the laws portrays uncivilized.

Chapter 8

Expanding Economic Opportunities in Agriculture, Forestry,

and Fisheries

One thing for sure in the Duterte administration is the fact

that development opportunities is not limited in metro manila.
Through the efforts of the president he being a former mayor who
endured the hardship of developing a city to a highly urbanized
city, a program was made to ensure that investment is not limited
to Manila alone.

The Department of Agriculture and its allied agencies

develop a program to further bolster the development by trying to
maximize the potentials that we have through technological
supplement.

In other parts of the country, the D.A implemented program

for mass production by providing the needed tools, machineries
and technology and thereby increasing the harvest in the
countryside.

One of the most significant decision they made and in fact

this was very crucial and it needs one to have a political will to
stop the importation of rice in the Philippines. At some point the
president is correct, we cannot be so reliant on the harvest of
others when we have all the means of producing them in the
country. The BFAR shared the same program by developing a
program primarily to help the fisherman in the country to ensure
that our waters is protected against pollution and other
contaminants.

Meanwhile, the DENR is so tough, despite lobbying she insist

that responsive mining should be followed at the risk of being by
passed by the Commission on Appointments. Her selfless
campaign will have a great impact against the Philippine economy
because it cannot be denied that mining is a major contributor in
the economy of the Philippines.

Development is not equivalent to destruction and this two

term cannot co-exist from one another. Therefore, in the process
of the development, our environment should not be sacrificed, we
are a witness what happened to other places of the country who
suffered much destruction because of our failure to protect the
environment and as a result properties has been destroyed and
lives has been lost.

Through the DENR Secretary her function is not to lessen the

impact of the programs in the national economy but to ensure
that protection is done through responsible mining.

In the Philippines, we have a program about tree planting,

and we called them a green wall project, through this the
residents of the area will plant trees and to ensure that they will
survive and grow is made through a memorandum of agreement.

Included in the agreement is the responsibility that they will

be held responsible for whatever damaged done in the course of
the greening program.

09
 Expanding Economic Opportunities in Industry and Services
through Trabaho at Negosyo

There is a problem between the capital and the labor and to

better explain the seemingly worsening problem that confronts
the two (2) is the battle cry of the president against job only
contracting.

According to the president there is a need to stop job only

contracting in order to promote the working condition of a person
both as to standards and relation.

However, job only contracting cannot be totally disregarded

considering that there are types of jobs in the Philippines that
needs different treatment.

Therefore, there is a wide gap between a campaign promise

and the actual realization of the promise considering its impact in
the national economy.

It is my humble submission that there is a need to at least

reassess the ban and to conduct a more extensive studies on how
to treat the situation without necessarily offending the statutory
prohibition about job only contracting.

10 Accelerating Human Capital Development

This is essential. In a developing country like the Philippines,

we must realize that human intervention in the attainment of
national development is essential with respect to production. In
other words, the greatest contributor of the development is
human participation.

In so doing, government must develop a program to better

promote human involvement and therefore accelerate human
capital development in the Philippines.
 However, much that the government want to help the people
when the people themselves will not at least helped themselves
all of this will be useless. Worthy to note that despite of continued
efforts from the different sectors the labor is often neglected to
accommodate the capital. This is never the intention of the law.

11Reducing Vulnerability of Individuals and Families

The Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017-2022 aims to

enable individuals and families to deal and cope with risks. This
chapter discusses strategies to reduce vulnerabilities by
decreasing people’s exposure to risks and increasing their
adaptive capacities. It describes a universal and transformative
social protection program for all Filipinos that will build up
socioeconomic resilience.

This is good in books only, because the real score of the

matter is that the people cannot alone rely absolutely on the
services that the government may offer because by doing so,
they tend to be more dependent other than becoming an
independent person.

In the guise of reducing the risk and to further promote the

lives of Filipino people certain programs were made to uplift the
lives of the people but the truth of the matter is that the
government brought the people in a situation wherein every
aspect of their lives will now depend in the government.

12 Building Safe and Secure Communities

Programs has been made to ensure a more safe and secure

communities. To better secure the community is to provide
adequate services to address the most common problem of the
people such as but not limited to health, shelter and other daily
needs of the people.

The basic social institution in the society is the family. The

more you secure it is tantamount of securing the community.
 PART IV INCREASING GROWTH POTENTIAL (“PATULOY NA
PAG-UNLAD”)

Systems were made to ensure continued economic growth.

The government through its different agencies are trying

their very best to make plans for increasing growth potential. The
DWSD and the DA are doing their very best to make things better
by maximizing what we have now.

There is economic growth in all phases because of the

continued efforts of the government through studies purposely
made to increase economic growth.

14Vigorously Advancing Science, Technology, and Innovation

Yes, we are not left behind when we speak of advancing

technology. As a matter of fact, most of the inventions now were
developed through the hardships of Filipinos but the problem is
the lack of support from the government.

We have technological approach to promote economic

growth in the Philippines and they were proven to be effective.

ENABLING AND SUPPORTIVE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT

In the Philippines we have all what we want, we have the

ready captive market to support our economic environment, but
the problems lies on how one will maximize what he have now.

In the capitalist point of view we have no supportive

economic environment because of prohibitory laws that dwell so
much on economic stability. These prohibitory laws is so
restrictive that tends to hamper economic development.
 16 Leveling the Playing Field through a National Competition
Policy

There is no such things a leveling the playing field. This is a

theory that applies long time ago where protectionism is the
prevalent system in the market but in the advent of globalization,
leveling the playing field is not healthy instead the name of the
game is always competition. Leveling the playing field and
national competition cannot co-exist with each other and they
cannot be used interchangeably.

PART VI FOUNDATIONS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

We have no sufficient foundations for sustainable

development. We have restrictive laws that tends to obstruct the
flow of national development and because of the laws that we
have, our foundation for sustainable development is therefore
impaired.

When the foundation is impaired, naturally the consequence

of the same is therefore compromise, there can be no sustainable
development unless the restrictive laws is remove.

18 Ensuring Security, Public Order, and Safety

This is the battle cry of the president. However, despite of

his bloody war against drugs just the same people tends to violate
the laws. There is much to celebrate because of the dramatic
decrease of focused crimes committed in the Philippines. This was
made possible through the efforts of the President.

On the other side, public order and safety is always the main
concern of everybody because progress and safety follows with
each other.

19Accelerating Infrastructure Development

 Yes, the government’s plan to accelerate development
through infrastructure became so effective. It is effective because
national development cannot be attained without the needed
services, we may as well attain it on slower mode.

The infra project is necessary because the latter

complements in attaining a genuine a lasting development by
making people become more independent as they are.

20Ensuring Ecological Integrity, Clean and Healthy

Environment

What is necessary in the government is the protection of the

interest of the few by depriving the right of the people to balance
ecology. This is actually what happened to Sec. Gina Lopez of
DENR wherein the Commission on Appointment rejected her
appointment because of the desire of Lopez to implement the law
by promoting healthful and balance ecology.

21 Plan Implementation and Monitoring

Several agencies were tasked to monitor the implementation

of the projects. I believe that monitoring should be a realistic one
so that the purpose of the creation of the office is achieved.
Monitoring committees are easy to manipulate in whatever form. I
suggest a total revamp of the membership of the committee and
to see to it that their appointment cannot be meddled by the
public officials.