President Duterte’s fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) drew mixed reactions from progressive and sectoral groups who had been waiting for more concrete steps from his administration to stem rising coronavirus infections.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. lamented how Duterte’s attacks on “oligarchs” diverted discussions on the government COVID-19 response.
“Ang totoong SONA ay dapat magsimula sa health crisis, ilan na ang kaso, ilan na namatay, ano ang kalagayan ng mga ospital at ano ang gagawin ng gobyerno para harapin ang pandemya. Pero wala (A real SONA should have started with the health crisis, how many are the cases and deaths, what is the status of hospitals, and what would the government do in the face of pandemic. But there is none),” he said in a Twitter post.
Reyes said Duterte’s threat to the two telecommunications firms was just a “populist rhetoric” meant to distract the public from the “mismanagement of the coronavirus health crisis.”
Duterte delivered his fifth SONA on Monday before a limited audience of 50 Congress and Cabinet officials at the Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City.
During his address to the nation, he warned PLDT Smart and Globe Telecom of government expropriation should they fail to improve their services by end of the year. He also fumed over the owners of media network ABS-CBN.
Human rights group Karapatan asked Duterte why did his administration opt out of the Rome Statute following his remark in his SONA he will not evade human rights obligations.
Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay cited Duterte’s actions to malign and undermine United Nations investigators looking into the human rights situation in the country.
“Human rights obligations are not concepts which are merely written on paper. Human and people’s rights should be respected, protected and realized in the daily lives of people—and these are not being done under your administration,” she said.
The group pointed out the irony that Duterte will not dodge the government’s human rights violations, yet he pushed for the reimposition of death penalty.
Duterte’s renewed call to revive the death penalty in the middle of the pandemic has outraged Akbayan Youth.
“The death penalty is not a vaccine for our ills. There is no lethal injection to stop unemployment, no death penalty to curb virus cases,” Dr. RJ Naguit, chair of the youth group, said.
Fishermen’s group Pamalakaya criticized the President for his defeatist stand on the West Philippine Sea issue, but said it was expected.
“Asserting what is rightfully ours does not mean declaring war with the aggressor,” Pamalakaya chair Fernando Hicap said in a statement.
“Nobody wants to have a war with any country. What we demand is justice and for the rights of Filipino fishers to be respected in our own territorial waters,” he stressed.