President Rodrigo Duterte barely mentioned the continuing modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in his fourth state of the nation address in 2019 and even undermined its capability to defend the Philippines from China’s intrusions. (See SONA 2019 Promise Tracker: Foreign Relations)
The rising tensions with China in the West Philippine Sea hogged President Rodrigo Duterte’s fourth state of the nation address in 2019, where he promised two things that remain hanging to this day:
Expressing disappointment over his failure to deliver on a campaign promise to end the drug menace, President Rodrigo Duterte repeated in his 2019 SONA his request to Congress to pass a bill restoring the death penalty on drug-related crimes and plunder.
