House of Representatives allies of President Duterte disagreed on the good and bad points of the first 100 days of the Chief Executive but gave him an “A” grade for his sincere efforts in making life better for Filipinos.
Reps. LRay Villafuerte (PDP-Laban, Camarines Sur), Sarah Elano (Kabataan party-list), and Carlos Isagani Zarate (Bayan Muna) lauded Duterte for scoring high in his peace initiatives with the Left and the Moro secessionist groups.
“Finally, we have a one-of-kind leader who is not hesitant to implement out-of-the box solutions to the problems that have buffeted by our countrymen in the past administrations,” Villafuerte said.
However, Elago said the Chief Executive deserves an “incomplete” grade for not addressing all pressing issues that affect Filipinos.
Elago said the principal criticism of Duterte’s first 100 days in office “comes from his inaction on most of the issues concerning education.”
Zarate agreed with the House minority blocs that criticized the inability of government to act on the worsening traffic in Metro Manila and Cebu.
“Most of the transportation problems left by the previous Aquino administration continue to bedevil the hapless public,” said Zarate.
Villafuerte, a former local chief executive like Duterte, appealed to all sectors not to be carried away by the undue political noise as international institutions remain bullish on the Philippine economy remaining on its upward trajectory – and possibly even surpassing preliminary growth forecasts – if the government could go ahead on its plan to fill the massive backlog in infrastructure and socioeconomic investments it had inherited from the previous administration.
“Rather than focus on what he says, why don’t we just focus on what he does because he needs all the support we can give him so that he can fix the things that were neglected in the past. What is important is that Mr. Duterte gets things done – and fast,” he said.
The former Camarines Sur governor noted that despite the flak Duterte has received in the international front, international financial institutions like the World Bank remain “highly optimistic on economic projects for the Philippines.”
The WB said in its update that “the Philippine economy may surpass the forecasts if authorities can further ramp up spending on public infrastructure as planned.” (Ben R. Rosario)