Former President Rodrigo R. Duterte bluntly warned lawmakers not to “f..k” with the Filipino people especially now that he is still alive.
The former Chief Executive’s grim warning to the legislators came as he revealed that the Bicameral Committee that finalized the 2025 national budget left a number of items on the proposed budget blank in terms of amount. He added that leaving budget items blank is tantamount to giving “blank checks.”
The former President was joined in his allegations by Cong. Isidro Ungab, a former chair of the House Appropriations Committee, former Executive Secretary lawyer Vic Rodriguez, and former Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) Chair lawyer Martin Delgra.
On his tirade Duterte said the leaving of expenditure items blank as to its amount could lead to trouble, “and the Military and the Police won’t allow this.”
He warned those in the bureaucracy to “stand up straight and be counted as true Filipino otherwise you are asking for your early demise.”
Duterte warned further that the Senators and Congressmen who signed the bicameral report on the proposed budget would go to jail for the illegal appropriations bill.
Actually we are intrigued with what the former President is accusing the members of the Bicameral Committee for signing the final version of the budget bill, and eventually the President for signing the bill into the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
If FPRRD is certain that by signing the Bicam report the lawmaker-members of the review body will all go to jail; as well as the President himself for signing the bill into law with items left blank as to its amount could be incarcerated, why did he not just leave it that way? By so doing FPRRD could have eliminated all his and daughter VP Sara’s political enemies without prolonging exchanges of harsh words that has led to the further division of the Filipino people instead of uniting them as aspired by many peace loving citizens of the country.
On the other hand, Malacanang, in an effort to cushion the impact of the allegation called on everyone to refer to the electronic copy of the recently signed GAA in the website of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and find where exactly are the expenditure items with missing amounts.
The Malacanang call is like a challenge to everyone if only to deny the Duterte and his henchmen’s accusations.
Why not every Filipino who has the desire for truth pick up the dare? And for the accusers to help those interested of the truth, why not they point to the exact pages and possibly the lines where the amount proposed to be expended are left blank?
For certain that will help the accusers prove their allegation, or the administration disprove its accusers.
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Well, last week up to the week-end the talk of the town and even in social media vlogs by mostly anti-Dutertes, was the identification of Davao City as the 8th global heaviest traffic metropolis. The Duterte critics have their heydays lambasting the city officials as well as the first district Congressman for failing to find solution to the burgeoning vehicular traffic situation.
The inclusion of Davao City as the 8th city with worst traffic situation was the outcome of a survey of various key cities in the world conducted by a group calling itself Global Traffic Index.
While we feel sad about this we cannot also help but subtly agree with the outcome of the survey. Actually we believe that indeed there is failure in the planning of road construction sites and the lack of foresight of our policy makers in approving land uses like setting up specific areas for residential subdivision sites as well as areas for construction of commercial buildings and even public transportation terminals. Months back we even vouched for the idea of setting up commercial enclaves in the suburban areas of the city. We in fact challenged our Congressmen to create another city in Davao City so that government offices will be moved to where the new city center will be located. In that way new vehicular routes will be established and existing ones relieved of the heavy transportation volume.
Apparently the present crop of local politicians are not willing to diminish their current turf. So, it is the people of Davao City who are suffering from the present traffic mess.
Ironically, in our trip to downtown Davao City yesterday morning the much maligned traffic now the subject of talks was nowhere to be found. We had a smooth travel yesterday. We really do not know why the ease of our travel.
