What the…? Here’s what Duterte plans to do if elected

DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte emerged as a possible presidential candidate last year largely due to insistent clamor from his supporters, who said that his successful campaign to keep crime incidence in the southern city to a minimum is precisely what should be replicated in the whole country. But after substituting as the presidential standard-bearer of the PDP-Laban last December and teaming up with Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano as his vice-presidential candidate, his platform had remained nebulous and patchy, with occasional statements here and there about changing the form of government to a federal one.

That is, until now.

Last week the Duterte-Cayetano tandem bared their comprehensive platform in Cebu City. And just as their initial TV ad said, they stand for genuine change, Tunay na Pagbabago, with Matapang na Solusyon and Mabilis na Aksyon as their battle cry.

This main theme has been translated into a three-pronged program of action.

First, they will launch a “24/7 War against Crime and Drugs.”

The all-out war against illegal drugs is borne out by findings that almost all barangays in Metro Manila—92.1 percent, to be exact—are under the influence of illegal drugs. This disturbing statistics is reinforced by the stark reality that half of those now confined in the country’s jails are charged with drug offenses.

How to stamp out the drug menace? For Duterte and Cayetano, what is needed is political will, or kamay na bakal.

We can interpret that to mean that a Duterte administration will swoop down on known drug lairs, and go hammer and tongs after the big-time traffickers in illegal drugs. Corollary to this, they also want to restore the death penalty for drug trafficking and other heinous crimes.

Duterte and Cayetano also want to increase the salaries of policemen to as much as P75,000 to P100,000 per month. The obvious rationale is that with decent salaries, law enforcers would not be tempted to engage in extortion, bribery and other crimes.

Apart from these, they will also make the police and other enforcement agencies adopt modern crimefighting strategies, create special criminal courts, and monitor frontline government officials and employees real time through video and audio surveillance to deter graft and corruption.

They will, likewise, prod Congress to pass the Freedom of Information Act and the anti-dummy law and to amend the bank-secrecy law so that the bank deposits of public officials can be readily accessed to determine whether they have accumulated wealth beyond their legal remuneration.

Second, the Duterte-Cayetano tandem will strive to achieve an “Inclusive Economy through Regional Development.”

The first item under this thrust is to convene a constitutional convention to move the country toward a federal form of government. Federalism will give the various regions more power to govern themselves, instead of political power being concentrated in the central government in Manila. It’s a complete overhaul of the political system dominated by what has been called “imperial Manila.”

The disparity in the distribution of government resources is evident in the 2016 national budget. Of the P3 trillion allocated for this year, the total for Metro Manila is 33 percent (15 percent, or P457.5 billion, for MM; 18 percent for central offices). The total for the Visayas is only 9 percent; for Mindanao, only 14 percent.

The Conditional-Cash Transfer Program will be expanded to include a jobs/livelihood component. At present, it entails giving qualified households a fixed amount every month for as long as they send their children to school and pregnant mothers undergo regular health checkups.

A Duterte-Cayetano administration will also establish more growth centers across the country to create jobs. They will also set up a P1-billion Small Capital Fund per region to encourage entrepreneurship.

To boost regional development, Duterte will move national departments outside the National Capital Region (NCR). The Department of Tourism will be moved to Cebu, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources to the Visayas, the Department of Agriculture to Mindanao, and the Department of Transportation and Communications to Clark. To help the agriculture sector, they will provide free irrigation and subsidized outputs to farmers, and establish more food terminals with cold-storage facilities.

Since Mindanao development will be given priority, a six-phase railway system straddling the whole island and covering approximately 2,000 kilometers will be established at a total cost of P78 billion.

To allow residents in the Visayas and Mindanao to access modern health care, they will establish specialized hospitals for heart, lung and kidney ailments.

And third, Duterte and Cayetano will work toward “Equality under the Law.”

Here, they want to put in place “a system of laws that works, actively promotes the welfare of all Filipinos, and protects every Filipino,” in contrast to a system where the law protects only the interest of the rich and the powerful, and excludes the poor and the disadvantaged sectors from any meaningful participation in decision-making.

Increasing the salaries of public- school teachers is their first priority under this component to give them enough incentive to persevere in their chosen profession.

The tandem is also seeking the exemption from income taxes of workers earning P20,000/month and below. Duterte has also openly advocated a gradual phaseout of labor contractualization, which denies the labor sector of security of tenure and leaves them to the vagaries of the market.

They will also subsidize the Philhealth premiums of farmers, transport workers, and market vendors.

Besides these, a Duterte-Cayetano government will abolish all unnecessary permits and procedures for overseas Filipino workers, and severely punish scammers who prey on them through various schemes.

Since the country is vulnerable to typhoons and natural disasters, Duterte plans to convince Congress to create a permanent Emergency Response Department.

The Duterte-Cayetano team pledges to give a living wage for all Filipinos, believing that everyone should have an income that can meet the cost of living. With this, the nation can finally eradicate poverty over the long term.

So are all these goals realistic and achievable? We’ll have to wait and see. –Ernesto Hilario, Businessmirror

E-mail: ernhil@yahoo.com.