President Aquino yesterday urged the nation to rally behind President-elect Rodrigo Duterte as he expressed the hope that there won’t be a “regression to the bad times” the country endured in the past.
“So long as what they’re doing can be good for the country or is good for the country, I think all of us owe them the support,” said Aquino who has pledged to withhold any comment and criticism of his successor at least for a year to give him leeway in governance.
The President highlighted that the country has undergone a large-scale transformation, from a resilient economic growth to improved social services, in the past six years and expressed hope these will be expanded beyond his term.
“I hope we really move on from success to success. I hope we don’t have a regression to the bad times that this country has had,” the President said in a recent forum with the Department of Public Works and Highways engineers in Malacañang.
President Aquino has less than a week in power before Duterte takes his oath at noon of June 30. The departure honors for Aquino and the inaugural of Duterte will be held in Malacañang.
The President, in the same remarks at the DPWH event, took pride of the country’s economic expansion as well as a decrease in poverty incidence in the country under his term.
With improved finances, the government was also able to increase investments on healthcare, education and other social services, according to Aquino. (GENALYN D. KABILING)