In the first three years of the Marcos presidency, cuts made by Congress in the annual budget program surpassed the P1-trillion mark, mostly from strategic transport, infrastructure and agri-based investments, and shifted to graft-prone projects like flood control, drainage systems and other local projects.
Acknowledging that the drug menace persists, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has renewed his “bloodless” campaign against both drug syndicates and small-scale drug dealers.
Halfway through his six-year term, only 42 or 25.45% of those promises have been fulfilled while 91 or 55.15% are in progress or still being implemented. The remaining 28 (16.97%) have been stalled, mostly in the legislature, and 4 (2.42%) have failed.
How will the remaining three years be positively different for a majority of Filipinos struggling to cope not only with relentlessly rising prices but also with incompetent leadership at various levels of public service?
Cayetano said Duterte deserves an interim release and house arrest, citing an accused individual’s right to good health, dignity and the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. But what about those killed, including young children who were once labeled as collateral damage by Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, in the course of the drug war?
It is quite disgusting to see and hear the vice president either ranting against the government or trying to be cute with her remarks and body language to endear herself to her audience, speaking spontaneously, oftentimes blabbering, with empty rhetoric without offering doable solutions to problems.
In the regular Senate sessions and during the initial session of the impeachment court last week, we saw not only a lack of decorum among the legislators but, worse, a mockery of the impeachment proceedings.
What is clear in the statements of these senators, who are holding very powerful positions in the chamber, is that they selectively use the law to spare Sara Duterte from being held accountable for her misdeeds.
For sure, the vice president and her camp would use all antics in the book to block the impeachment trial. The time for her to answer the accusations won't come. She may be able to go scot-free on technicalities, but she'd be missing the opportunity to clear her name.
The president needs to take more drastic action against erring or non-performing officials, not only those in the Cabinet but even in lower-level agencies and regulatory entities, particularly those involved in frontline government services.
