Groups slam Duterte on final SONA

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

Various progressive groups across Western Visayas led by Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Panay slammed President Rodrigo Duterte in the lead up to his sixth and final State of the Nation Address (SONA) yesterday, July 26, 2021.

These groups launched decentralized protest actions in the city and province of Iloilo, Roxas City in Capiz and Kalibo, Aklan.

They raised issues on human rights and sovereignty, and also called for a P10,000 emergency subsidy for those affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

BAYAN-Aklan Chapter expressed their opposition to the proposed Boracay Island Development Authority (BIDA).

The groups also challenged Panayanons to unite and take inspiration in the online Tumindig movement inspired by artist Tarantadong Kalbo and called to realize this movement offline.

In a press release, BAYAN Panay deputy spokesperson Bryan Bosque said that while ordinary Filipinos are suffering from hunger, poverty, and unemployment, the priority of the Duterte administration and his allies is far from answering the sufferings of the Filipinos.

He cited the dolomite sand in Manila Bay which was recently washed over by Typhoon Fabian, as well as the high number of unemployment of at least 3 million, 15 million families who are hungry, and the continued delay in delivering subsidies during the pandemic.

“We expect nothing but lies from Duterte on his sixth and last SONA as he did nothing to alleviate the dire conditions of our fellow Filipinos. The legacy of the Duterte administration is to spread lies but it cannot cover up the 9.5% decline in our gross domestic product for 2020, record-high inflation rate and unemployment rate and poverty plus the thousands of human rights violations,” Bosque said.

Bosque added that Duterte and his ilk are rushing in preparation for the upcoming 2022 presidential elections in a “desperate attempt” to extend power and evade accountability, pointing to his alleged gross neglect of the Filipino’s sovereign and democratic rights.

He also cited the so-called “War on Drugs” which has shown conflicting numbers of deaths up to this time, as well as the lack of a strong stand on the West Philippine Sea (WPS) dispute.

The national government’s #RealNumbersPH campaign lists 6,117 deaths as of April 30, 2021, but the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR) found at least 8,663 deaths as of March 2020.

Other human rights groups, according to multiple news reports, have estimated deaths between 13,000 to more than 20,000.

In addition, 20 activists, indigenous farmers, National Democratic Front (NDF) personalities, and human rights workers were allegedly killed by state forces since the start of the pandemic.

“The people are already tired of Duterte. The resistance and protests action both offline and online can attest to the Filipinos desire to put an end to the reign of Duterte and will never allow another Duterte or his ilk to win the 2022 presidential elections. We will exert all our efforts to frustrate the administration’s maneuvers to hold on to power and hold them accountable for their crimes against the people. They should be held accountable for all the extra-judicial killings and their defeatist stand on the West Philippine Sea,” Bosque said.

‘UNSCIENTIFIC GOVERNANCE’

Science and technology group AGHAM also slammed the president on his final address to Congress, calling his administration “unscientific” and “militaristic”.

In a press statement, AGHAM cited seven “policy blunders”, which they said “have resulted in massive loss of lives and rampant violation of people’s rights”, including:

-Surrender of marine and energy resources in the WPS;

-Unscientific and militaristic COVID-19 pandemic response;

-Brain drain and contractualization of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workers;

-Deteriorating STEM education;

-Backward agriculture and weak industrial capacity;

-Intensified mining liberalization; and

-Ignoring science and resorting to arrogance.

They also cited several instances to expound their contentions, including Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Briones’ response to the World Bank’s low score on the country’s education system, as well as Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Undersecretary Benny Antiporda’s “experiments” to test the viability of the dolomite sand being laid down on Manila Bay.

“The ability to accept and correct mistakes, perhaps the most important trait in science, is hard to find in the Duterte administration. What we keep on hearing from various government officials are unscientific and arrogant remarks on various issues. We can cite many other instances of unscientific remarks from government officials, but perhaps the biggest example is when Duterte himself declared that COVID-19 infection could be prevented by cleaning face masks with gasoline and even insisting that he was not joking. What is clearly not a joke is the implications of the Duterte government’s unscientific and militaristic policies to the lives of millions of Filipinos,” the group said in the statement.