An Urgent Call for Change
An Urgent
Call for Change
By Ricardo
Ricafort
Compared to numbers of people that have attended the
political campaign, Presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte’s campaign rallies
are numerous. The other candidates are
not that big as him. Grace Poe, Mar
Roxas and Binay are even faced with vote-buying and “hakot” which refers to
fetching people in other places so as to show a massive crowd. Just yesterday, supporters of Grace Poe were
complaining of not getting her 500 pesos promise as payment for attending the
rally.1 They were never given
this amount. In one campaign rally of
Mar Roxas, a video captures a campaign leader distributing a money envelope and
telling the crowd to shout louder to receive more envelope. 2
Duterte’s campaign rallies were never faked and
bought. People from all walks of life
come and support him. Duterte never paid
them. He is the one true leader that fights
crime and corruption. COA or Commission
on Audit’s report against Binay 3 and Roxas 4, shows why they are not the same caliber of
Duterte. In turn, Binay would accuse
Duterte of misuse of funds5 which turns out to be deceptive. COA’s findings were that the money was used in
“plane fares of coaches and
students, fuel for various vehicles, insurance premiums for vehicles and
pay for electricity, water, and telephone bills”.6 So it was not used personally by
Duterte. Asides, Duterte’s actions were
permitted by law as mentioned in RA 5447 “the fund shall be used to improve school facilities, print
and buy books, pay salaries of teachers, grant scholarships, and promote
physical education programs.” 7
So many people are opting for Duterte than Grace
Poe. The Philippines needs a tough
leader this time. Crime and corruption
are the leading agenda that these candidates need to address. Grace Poe doesn’t really have a tracked
record to qualify. People are tired of
the inept response of the government.
People are even asking where the Yolanda funds are. Why the farmers in Kidapawan were not given
rice instead of bullets? Why were the government inhumanely treated the old
people in NAIA airport when they were found with “bullet”? Why Noynoy government cannot respond immediately to these situations?
Filipinos are tired.
They want an immediate change to how the government must respond. Do you think Grace Poe can do it? Do you think she has the ability to decide to
a situation that needs an immediate response?
In the second presidential debate, Duterte asked her what to do if two
Coast Guard ships were crushed by missiles of China. She did not give a straight forward answer. She also lied about signing the coco levy funds
which the farmers urgently need this time.
Why can’t just the present government decide to give it straight to the
coconut farmers since they really owned it?
The amount which ballooned to around 100 to 150 billion of pesos 8 should have been long given to the farmers but
the coco levy bill prevented it. Senate Bill 2675, known as Coconut Farmers and Industry
Development Act of 2015 or “an act declaring the coconut levy assets as a trust
fund, providing for its management and utilization, authorizing the
Privatization and Management Office to dispose of the coconut levy assets, and for
other purposes.”9
Rodrigo Duterte,
whose mother is one who should have benefitted from coco levy funds, promised
to give it all straight to the farmers if elected as president. No other
candidate said that sincerely. Grace Poe
would boast about it but Filipinos cannot just believe her since Danding
Cojuangco is one of her best financiers.
No need to explain about Danding’s interests. He is the chairman of San Miguel Corporation which
greatly benefitted from the coco levy funds. 10
And so why the number of Filipinos is swelling in
the campaign rallies of Duterte? Even
when he utters bad words and jokes, it seems people are not swayed unto it. Filipinos are never wary. They continually support him. They don’t agree with what the bishops are
saying against Duterte.11 They
are asking why only Duterte? And what’s the
big deal behind compared to the corruption being shown straight and flat in the
TV screens when the other candidates pay the supporters and misuse government
funds and helicopters. In spite of
this, Duterte promises a clean government.
He promised to curb criminalities for six months. He assured Binay and those who have graft
cases to be in jail to wait for a fair trial.
He assures everyone that he won’t be vengeful and will try to unite the country that is already divided by political regimes which fooled Filipinos in
the past of sweet talk and false promises of a better life.
Rodrigo Duterte, for President, holds the promises as
well but with the solid support of Filipinos from home and abroad calling for an
urgent change of the government towards an effective and decisive form of
government. He may be the last hope of
the Filipinos.
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