DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Barely a week before President Rodrigo Duterte deliver his second State of the Nation Address (SONA), a militant lawmaker on Tuesday said the President’s promised reforms remain “intangible and inedible” especially to the country’s poor sectors.
“The president promised better lives for the poor and this earned him a broad support from the poor, but it totally relies on the actual fulfillment, that the poor could concretely benefit from,” Casilao said in a press briefing at the Congress.
Casilao, for instance, cited Duterte’s promise to end labor contractualization or “endo”, but failed to end the labor malpractice even as he vowed to end it within a week of his presidency. After more than a year, Duterte’s labor chief Silvestre Bello tolerated contractualization by the issuance of Department Order No. 174.
Casilao said there was no significant wage increase felt by Filipino workers.
Apart from ending “endo,” Casilao siad the Mindanaoan president also failed to institute “genuine agrarian reform and rural development, a stop to rice importation, end the housing problem of urban poor and ending destructive mining,” among others.
“The government’s recent measures for countryside concerns are ranging from indecisive to detrimental to farmers, especially that they are now being subjected to massive militarization and aerial bombings,” Casilao said.
Casilao also scored the government’s move of addressing the urban poor woes. This comes after urban poor group Kadamay hit the Duterte administration for its failure to implement the “no relocation, no demolition” policy.
Casilao said that Kadamay, while clamoring for housing units, they were also “deprived of their right to access the supposedly social service.”
“Unoccupied and deteriorating relocation sites were publicized due to the ‘Occupy Bulacan’ campaign of Kadamay triggering a joint hearing of both Houses,” he said.
He added that while the president may feel assured of recent survey of approval rating, “the people of Mindanao registered their disapproval, presumably due to his martial law declaration.”
Mindanao is also hosting a significant number of mining operations, which the lawmaker said is gravely affecting the lives of host communities.
“In relation, Lumad and farmer communities who are opposing mining operations are being subjected to heavy militarization and abuses. The recent change in the agency is leading away from his promise to stop destructive mining in the country,” he pointed out.
“We see Duterte’s meat of governance as neoliberal, and far from being national-democratic, it is still subservient to foreign monopoly and unresponsive of people’s demand for reforms, even cossetting fascists section of the government,” Casilao said. (davaotoday.com)
