Less than two years before President Rodrigo Duterte’s six-year term ends in 2022, two of his promises on his peace agenda have been delivered: the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) and the enactment of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, repealing the Human Security Act of 2007 (HSA).
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.
President Rodrigo Duterte, now at the midway mark of his six-year term, will deliver his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 22 having made good on many of his promises last year, but also carrying with him some big misses.
President Rodrigo Duterte has not mentioned his promises related to the media since his first State of the Nation Address in 2016.
President Rodrigo Duterte fulfilled the crux of his peace agenda, as promised in his third State of the Nation Address (SONA): the signing of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) to “finally end the decades-old conflict that is rooted in the Bangsamoro’s fight for self-determination and the recognition of their unique identity.”
Halfway into his term, President Rodrigo Duterte’s relationship with the military remains strong as ever, with the commander-in-chief promising to take responsibility for consequences in the execution of their missions such as that on the war on drugs and insurgency.
To eradicate illegal drugs in three to six months and to lower criminality was a campaign promise, and became the centerpiece of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration. Entering the second half of his presidency, he has repeatedly promised this in all of his three State of the Nation Addresses. It is a promise still in progress.
Of the promises President Duterte made during his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) related to the protection and preservation of the environment, he achieved but one - the ban on open-pit mining. Those that pertain to the restoration and rehabilitation of the country’s tourist destinations remain in-progress. Where he failed, however, was to deliver on the laws for land use, and the creation of a disaster agency.
