De Lima to Duterte: It is not time for gimmicks

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the Business Forum held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Amman, Jordan on September 6, 2018. ALFRED FRIAS/ PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

Prior to the cancellation of his nationwide public address, President Rodrigo Duterte should better discuss to the Filipino people the steps the government is taking to address the issues that the country is facing, Senator Leila De Lima said on Tuesday, September 11.

The senator said this after Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. announced on Monday that Duterte will be delivering a nationwide address this afternoon. This came at the heels of the revocation of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s granted amnesty and the soaring prices of basic commodities in the Philippines.

“Any attempt to shift the focus of the national conversation away from our failing economy will just be cheap gimmicks to distract us from holding him and his administration accountable for the dire situation that we are in now,” De Lima said in a statement.

“The Filipinos have no use for yet another nationally broadcasted meanderings of a madman. Our country wants to know that our President is doing something other than politicking,” she added.

De Lima also said the President should tackle about the issue of unemployment and underemployment, and the preparations that the administration is doing for the potential “super typhoon” approaching the Philippine area of responsibility.

“Now is not the time for the President to play politics. Now is the time for the President to respect and uphold the Constitution. Now is the time for the President to at least attempt to govern,” she said.

“If the President elects to serve his paranoia, or to cover up his negligence or abuses, by using his platform today to attack the political opposition, he will have revealed to our nation and to the world that he is not our leader; that he does not serve the interests of our people, only his own,” she continued.

Duterte was supposed to talk to the public at 3 p.m. but Malacañang announced only a few minutes before its expected time to begin that the press conference will no longer happen. Duterte will instead have a ‘tete-a-tete’ with Chief Presidential Counsel Salvador Panelo, with only state-run media allowed to enter the Palace.

Trillanes on Sunday called Duterte a ‘paranoid,’ after the latter claimed that the senator and the Liberal Party (LP) were ‘praying’ for his ouster.

“Mga guni-guni niya ‘yan sa kanyang utak kasi paranoid na siya (He is just imagining things because he is already paranoid),” Trillanes told reporters.

Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Maria “Joma” Sison, meanwhile, said there are much more pressing concerns that need to be addressed rather than the ouster plot against him.

“Pinakamalawak na porsyento ng tao [ang iniisip ay] ‘yung pagbulusok ng ekonomiya lalo na sa anyo ng pagtaas, paglipad ng mga presyo ng mga batayang bilihin, at ito ang nagpapahirap sa mayorya ng sambayanang Pilipino (A huge percent of the people are concerned with the sinking economy, especially on the inflation, with prices of primary goods skyrocketing high, and these are the things that make the majority of Filipinos suffer),” Sison stressed.

[READ: Sison hits Duterte over destabilization claims vs Left]