Duterte's governance of lies led to anti-poor policies – debt watchdog

The Duterte administration’s governance of lies has resulted in anti-poor policies such as unabated mining and rice imports, the influx of illegal Chinese businesses, unemployment, and water shortages, debt-watchdog group Freedom of Debt Coalition (FDC) said Tuesday.

The FDC made its allegations during its yearly State of the People’s Address, adding that President Rodrigo Duterte had broken every major promise he made since taking office in 2016.

Among them was his promise to an end mining, end contractualization, and a comfortable life for the poor.

Former Akbayan party-list Representative Walden Bello was particularly critical of the president’s failure to support the confirmation of Gina Lopez, a known advocate of a sustainable environment who ordered the closure of 27 erring mining companies, as Environment Secretary.

Bello also denounced Duterte for his dependence on rice imports, and Chinese loans for infrastructure projects which had yet to materialize.

“The appointment of Lopez was cosmetic, while the passage of the Rice Tariffication law, which allows unlimited rice imports, will mean the death of the industry,” Bello said. “And these Chinese investments?  What we have now is small capital investments, and massive dirty money from China due to illegal gaming and mining operations. Is this the investment that we want?”

Unemployment, Kaliwa Dam

Labor leader Leody de Guzman, for his part, said it was baffling that while the president promised to end contractualization, or employers’ practice of ending worker contracts every five months without just cause, this did not happen.

Worse, there was an influx of Chinese workers despite there being 10 million unemployed Filipinos.

“Sampung milyong Pilipino ang walang trabaho, pero 3.12 milyon Chinese workers ang dumating sa bansa simula 2016. Nitong taon lang, 118,000 Chinese ang naissuehan ng permit [to work]. Bakit hindi unahin ang ating mga manggagawa?” De Guzman asked.

“Hindi ako galit sa mga Chinese workers. Ang dapat sisihin rito, ang ating gobyerno kasi hindi nila na-control,” De Guzman added.

Likewise, de Guzman raised doubts whether China could fulfill its commitments on the loans it granted to the Philippines when the Chinese economy was experiencing a slowdown and four percent of China’s one billion strong population was unemployed.

With China's economy at its slowest in 27 years, 6.2 percent GDP growth during 2019's second quarter, de Guzman wondered “where will China get all the resources to fund these projects when its growth is going down?"

FDC Board Member and Dr. Eduardo Tadem and STOP Kaliwa Dam organization member Ferdie Salazar, on the other hand, were apalled that the government's solution to the lingering Metro Manila water shortage was the construction of the Chinese-funded Kaliwa dam.

“What happened? There’s high prices of water, hindi 24 hours [na may water supply], no limits to profit taking and poor water sanitation services,” Tadem said.

“Dapat hindi po mapagkakakitaan ang pagtingin sa tubig. Serbisyo po ito sa taumbayan. Kung pagkakakitaan lang po ang tubig, ito po ang mangyayari: Kaliwa Dam. Masisira ang kalikasan, malalabag ang mga karapatan,” Salazar added. — DVM/KBK, GMA News