State of the nation: Duterte’s five years of failure
Editorial
Nothing has changed since last year’s state of the nation as the same fascist, oppressive, and ruthless regime has “governed” the Philippines further into disaster: stunted education system, dwindling food and resources, militarized COVID-19 response, incompetent leaders, and a dipping economy. This is president Rodrigo Duterte’s last State of the Nation Address (SONA) and he has done nothing but break the promises of change and progress he made before the Filipino people.
Never walking the talk seems to be the only thing that Duterte is consistent at. In his 2020 SONA, Duterte assured that the vaccine for COVID-19 is “around the corner” and the government will be ramping up their testing capacity to control the coronavirus pandemic. Our numbers today, however, suggest that our COVID-19 response has been bad — even worse — than last year. Nothing changed with our militarized lockdowns and confusing quarantine protocols, and our slow and delayed vaccine rollout made everything worse. Even with the emergence of the new Delta variant, they continue to be complacent and reactive in their pandemic response.
While rejecting the call of the education sector for #LigtasnaBalikEskwela as he cannot “put to rest the health of our teachers and students,” the economy was hastily reopened. Duterte refused to listen to frontliners and healthcare workers against Department of Health secretary Francisco Duque III’s incompetence in leading the health sector. Worse, his administration continued to lie about our country faring well in curbing the pandemic, trying to cover up the fact that the healthcare system is on the brink of collapse. Duterte farcically expresses his gratitude for our frontliners, but neglects their call for adequate support and scientific solutions to the pandemic..
Duterte claims that the country was able to withstand the socio-economic impacts of COVID-19. While he insists that we have the money and power to provide for marginalized Filipinos and small businesses, the Philippines’ debt hitting over 11 trillion pesos and our fluctuating economy tell otherwise. Duterte’s lies about the state of the nation amid the COVID-19 pandemic continue to pile up, locking us into this seemingly unending struggle amid the global health crisis.
The science and technology (S&T) sector also suffered under Duterte’s oppressive regime. Philippine S&T has never been doing well with politics taking the hand in maneuvering our S&T for personal interests, and the Duterte administration’s negligence has truly exposed the struggles our scientists continue to face in pursuing this profession. Just take a look at our pandemic response. Years of an underfunded S&T sector paired with stunted science education and red tape have culminated into our dismal treatment of the pandemic. Hence, our healthcare system is burned out, our vaccine research and development is almost nonexistent, and most of our researchers are unable to pursue their studies.
Duterte in his last SONA promised to extend help to the agricultural sector as he said he believes that it is key to the growth of our economy. However, he fails (again) to uphold this promise with the countless killing of our peasant farmers and even progressive scientists holding the line to fight for human rights. On top of that, his administration has continuously belittled our scientists: calling them “bayaran,” not heeding their demands and recommendations for better government policies, and keeping them overworked for little to no pay.
Duterte’s obsession for power and military rule has forced our S&T sector on its back. While the military and police enjoy every incentive they have for upholding the Anti-Terror Law and cracking down activists and student leaders, Filipino scientists continue to struggle with the same burdens they faced before. And this leaves every Filipino to suffer in the fascist regime in the most crucial time.
Our state of the nation amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the state of Philippine S&T are just some manifestations of the true state of the nation under the Duterte administration. Ever since he started his campaign for presidency, Duterte has made a lot of promises: eradication of drugs in three to six months, assertion of our rights with the West Philippine Sea, upholding our human rights, and change supposedly for the better. Fast forward to the fifth year of his term and none of them came true. All we got are extrajudicial killings, policies favoring China and other imperialist countries, state forces cracking down our progressives, rampant red-tagging and killing of our journalists and student leaders, the military shutting down our Lumad schools, and a big network of lies and disinformation.
Duterte has blundered big time with the management of the coronavirus pandemic, and in his fifth year as president he has failed once again to provide to the best interest of the masses he is supposed to serve. And his failures, lies, and broken promises would never end unless we hold him accountable for the lives lost under his hands.
It is then imperative for us to never forget every failure, betrayal, and disservice the Duterte administration made against the Filipino people. Ultimately, it is imperative for us to learn from where these failures led us, and may we never falter to call out our next leaders so we can never end up in the same nightmare of a fascist regime again. Hence, we stand firm and end Duterte’s failures by putting him out of power. And as his administration gears up for the 2022 elections, may we use our power to vote against tyranny, so that the lies, failures, and broken promises of the Duterte administration would end all at once.
