Once more, Pres. Duterte makes history!

Pres. Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte pulled another piece of history when he convened the National Security Council, which former president Benigno "PNoy" Aquino III never called simply because his predecessor, former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would have the right to join that meeting, and since he had her incarcerated, so he never thought of convening the NSC for his selfish reasons.

Well, last Wednesday, Pres. Duterte presided over the NSC with former presidents PNoy Aquino, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Fidel V. Ramos and Joseph "Erap" Estrada all present in one table, and yes, they also had an historic photo opportunity. An as expected, PNoy continued to wear his yellow ribbon on his chest, not the Philippine flag. Change has indeed happen inside Malacañang, but PNoy refuses to change his yellow ribbon which is fast becoming irrelevant like him.

Allow me to continue talking about the recently concluded State of the Nation Address of Duterte. But before all else, let me reiterate what I usually say during the SONA's made by our former presidents - from Tita Cory Aquino to Aquino - their speeches were very well made and they delivered them very well. But in the end, these SONA's end up as mere rhetoric or mere lip service from these presidents.

While we applaud the SONA made by Duterte, let me tell you that whether these "wish list" can be delivered is mostly up to Congress to fast track and approve in record breaking time. But as far as the Office of the President is concerned or at least the Executive Branch, Duterte is moving faster than the rest of the country. He has approached the Freedom of Information as far as the Executive Branch is concerned. He has ordered agencies like the Land Transportation Office to increase the validity of driver's license from three years to five years, and car registration to five years. The same order has been given to Passport validity.

I trust that House Speaker Pantaleon "Bebot" Alvarez Jr. would respond with the same ferocity that we see in Duterte. I expect the same thing from newly elected Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III who also leads the majority in the Philippine Senate. But since the Duterte presidency is not a dictatorship, we expect senators or congressmen to pontificate on certain issues and bring out lengthy useless debates. But in the meantime, the ball is now in the legislature.

If there was something that struck me during Duterte's SONA, it was when he said, "Thus to our religious bishops, leaders, priests, pastors, preachers, imams, let me assure you that while I am a stickler for the principle of separation between Church and State, I believe quite strongly that there should never be a separation between God and State.I wish to assure everyone though that vindictiveness is not in my system. Just like you and I, all, equal treatment and equal protection are what I ask for our people."

In my book, this statement was quite a revelation because traditional politicians always espouse the separation of the church and state, and in all his honesty, Duterte says, "I believe quite strongly that there should never be a separation between God and State." This is really true. And I also believe that there should be no separation between God and State. This is why during the elections when the people have elected their leaders, we say, "VoxPopuli, Vox Dei" which means, the "Voice of the people is the voice of God."

For the taxpayers, Duterte wanted to change the system that is being used by the Bureau of Internal Revenue. When he campaigned and ran for president, I remember that one of the platforms of then Cebu Governor Emilio "Lito" Osmeña was tax reform, wherein he used Hong Kong as the best example where taxes are simplified and thus, it doesn't give the Internal Revenue Bureaucrats some leeway to "negotiate" a deal with taxpayers so as to clear their tax problems.

In short, when the BIR examiner can no longer use the confusing maze of tax resolutions, deductions, and penalties on unsuspecting taxpayers, we shall be seeing more people paying their taxes, religiously and correctly and this is exactly what Duterte wants to see happen and believe me when this happens. There will be more money flowing into the coffers of the national treasury. But I have saved the best for the last, that Duterte is hell-bent in pursuing our shift from our present unitary form of governance and into a Parliamentary-Federal form of government and to prove that he is not interested in extending his term of office. He clearly stated that he would be out of office by that time so we are actually talking about the future of governance in this country when we can finally unify as a real nation.