It is nearly a hundred days since Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte took over the reigns of power in the Philippine government and I won’t present to you the long list of the promises that Pres. Duterte made during the Presidential campaign and the promises he has kept. Frankly speaking, if I placed all those achievements of Pres. Duterte… it will not fit in one column. But the Netizens supporting Pres. Duterte has already done that and it is easy for me to cut and paste it here… but I’d would rather that my good friend, Communications Secretary Martin Andanar do the honors for this occasion.
If at all, one promise by Pres. Duterte has not yet been met… so he already asked for a six-month extension on the War against illegal drugs. Well everyone is telling Pres. Duterte that the war against drugs cannot be won… and that includes Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson and I fully agree with his view… that you just cannot set a timetable on this war because if we did that, the drug lords might as well take a six-month vacation from their illegal activities and six months later… they’ll come back with a vengeance and make things worse for our country.
Of course, we know that Pres. Duterte is an honest man… that it is a timetable that he set as his personal best. But everyone I talked with about this agrees with me… that we should never allow and let our guard down especially with our problems of illegal drugs. Mind you, even our Lord Jesus Christ has something to say about this. In fact I already wrote this in my column in The Freeman last Friday which Communications Secretary Martin Andanar also read and agreed with me.
So what is this very important message from our Lord Jesus Christ? It is taken from the book of Matthew 12: 43-45, which reads, “43 When an unclean spirit goes out of a person it roams through arid regions searching for rest but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my home from which I came.’ But upon returning, it finds it empty, swept clean, and put in order. 45 Then it does and brings back with itself seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they move in and dwell there’ and the last condition of that person is worse than the first. Thus it will be with this evil generation.”
Ask any Pastor, bishop or priest to read this biblical passage and let them tell us with a straight face that we can put an end to this war against drugs six months from now because it dooms our nation to a state worse than when we declared this war against illegal drugs. I just hope that this time around, Pres. Duterte would use this scripture passage not to extend the war against illegal drugs… but rather not to put an official end to this war so we can all rest easy that throughout his six-year term… the Philippines will join the nations like Japan and Singapore and boast to the world that we have become a drug free nation.
Meanwhile there are many other positive things happening in this country, like a report that I read that the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) has embarked on a new policy where they conduct surprise inspections on domestic passenger vessels. With Philippine ferry boats averaging more than 35 years old or more… this is a very positive move on the part of the Department of Transportation (DOTr). I gathered that weeks ago a MARINA team boarded vessels docked at the Manila North Harbor and four vessels were detained because of various deficiencies and safety concerns… like lack of life jackets or life vests and documentation.
I hope that this new policy by MARINA will be implemented in all ports nationwide. Safety in the seas should never be compromised and we welcome this new policy by MARINA under the leadership of Pres. Duterte. I guess it is also largely due to the new MARINA administrator Marcial Q.C. Amaro III who was once the safety officer of a major oil company.
If at all there is something that has not changed under the Duterte administration… it is that in Cebu City we are not getting the infrastructure development that we deserve as promised by Pres. Duterte. Last Sunday, I spent my rainy afternoon in a meeting with the infrastructure team of the Regional Development Council (RDC-7) together with Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino, Pres. Duterte’s alter ego in the Visayas.
I was asked to join the meeting because of my Year 2000 plan to create a parallel road to Escario St. a road that in that year wasn’t congested with traffic at all…but today is one of the most traffic clogged streets in Cebu City. This is a 16-year road project that we envisioned a long time ago, but DPWH never cared to fund this roadway. Worse was Cebu City got nothing with the six years under then President Aquino. But yesterday, I got another bad news that for the year 2017 this parallel road to Escario St. was not budgeted. That’s a promised that only Pres. Duterte should fulfill.
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Email : vsbobita@mozcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com.