DAVAO DEL NORTE, Philippines — If the country’s stable and fast-growing economy has a story to tell, majority of the country’s population which is the poor, have not heard it, a lawmaker said.
Anakpawis Representative Ariel Casilao, in a statement on Monday, October 9, said the decline of President Duterte’s rating in the recent Social Weather Statin (SWS) survey was attributed to his “anti-poor and anti-peasant” policies.
Casilao said that majority of the Filipino people remain poor because the economic policies implemented by the Duterte administration does not actually help the lowly farmers and fisherfolks across the country.
“It is natural for the people to break out from being deceived by sham promises for change, as President Duterte has nothing new to offer,” Casilao said.
The leftist lawmaker pointed out that Duterte employed the “semi-feudal and neo-liberal social and economic framework” which he inherited from the Aquino administration.
Casilao said the economic problems besetting the country’s growing number of poor Filipinos has worsened by the government’s illegal war on drugs and all-out war against the communist rebels and Moro people under the government’s counter-insurgency operation “Oplan Kapayapaan.”
He, however, lamented that despite the publicity of the drug-related killings brought upon by the government’s war on illegal drugs, “extra-judicial killings of farmers and atrocities in the countryside remain unabated and yet to receive its deserved attention.”
To date, 81 farmers died in Duterte’s drug war as of August 31, Casilao said, citing a report from farmer’s group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).
On Sunday, October 8, SWS latest results revealed that the President’s net satisfaction rating slid by 18 points as it fell to “good” in the third quarter.
Based on the survey, 67 percent of respondents were satisfied, while 14 percent were undecided, and 19 percent were dissatisfied with Duterte’s performance. (davaotoday.com)
