De Lima: Duterte made ‘biggest joke ever’ in SONA but nobody’s laughing

President Rodrigo Duterte's third State of the Nation Address on Monday was not spared from scathing remarks from one of his staunchest critics, Senator Leila de Lima.

"Duterte’s third SONA was characterized by a nagging dissonance between the story he was telling and the reality as Filipinos saw it in the past two years," De Lima said, writing from her detention cell on Tuesday.

De Lima was not pleased with Duterte's remark about human life being more important than human rights, saying: "But 23,000 human beings are dead because of his drug war. Those are human lives."

De Lima also nitpicked Duterte's promise to be more "relentless and chilling" in eliminating the drug menace.

"He has not ended the drug menace in six months as he promised to. But he promises to be more ‘relentless and chilling,’ without saying towards whom. So far, he has not been relentless and chilling to drug lords," she said.

The detained senator is also not buying the President's remarks on ending contractualization and toughening up against the mining industry.

"Apparently, ending contractualization is the limit of Duterte’s political will. So much arrogance of power, yet so little effort for social justice," she said.

"He warns the mining industry again that they will be called to account for environmental destruction. But we all know he already lost the battle on destructive mining when, under pressure, he dropped his former Environment Secretary Gina Lopez like a hot potato," she added.

'Biggest joke'

But of all the issues the President was able to cover during his conventionally shorter speech, Duterte's promise to confront China on the issue of the West Philippine Sea was what De Lima called "the biggest joke ever."

"He says he continues to confront China on the issue of the West Philippine Sea. This is the biggest joke ever."

"But no one was laughing," she added. "Especially not the fishermen forced to ‘barter’ their fish for instant noodles."

According to De Lima, allowing Chinese military planes to land in Davao City was Duterte's supposed "response" to the installation of Chinsese missiles in the Spratlys.

"This is not confronting China. This is capitulating to China," she added.

Nevertheless, De Lima commended President Duterte for sticking to his script in this year's SONA.

The lawmaker complimented his "acting" as "almost impeccable," adding it was "as if his words were describing reality, even when reality was obscure in his speech."

"The script and the acting would have been good for a movie. But running the country is not like making a movie," De Lima said.

"The country is still in shambles. Not even Director Joyce Bernal can fix that," she added. — MDM, GMA News