{"id":241863,"date":"2020-01-10T20:59:40","date_gmt":"2020-01-11T01:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=241863"},"modified":"2020-01-10T20:59:40","modified_gmt":"2020-01-11T01:59:40","slug":"i-have-no-crony-prrd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/01\/10\/i-have-no-crony-prrd\/","title":{"rendered":"I have no crony: PRRD"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers a speech during the oath-taking ceremony of newly-appointed government officials at the Malaca\u00f1an Palace on January 8, 2020. KING RODRIGUEZ\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday vehemently denied that he has started his own brand of cronyism in the country during his watch.<\/p>\n

Duterte made the clarification in a speech delivered in Pigcawayan, Cotabato, as he once again criticized the country’s oligarchs.<\/p>\n

“Maraming daldal, mga mayayaman na interesado, ibigay ni<\/em>\u00a0Duterte\u00a0iyan sa<\/em>\u00a0crony\u00a0niya. Wala akong<\/em>\u00a0crony (Many interested oligarchs are claiming that ‘Duterte would give that to his crony.’ I don’t have crony),” Duterte said.<\/p>\n

“May<\/em>\u00a0girlfriends\u00a0ako.<\/em>\u00a0Crony,\u00a0wala ako. Walang silbi, hindi ko mayakap yung mga buang na iyan. Ang akin,<\/em>\u00a0girlfriend.\u00a0Wala akong<\/em>\u00a0crony (I have girlfriends. Crony, I have none. Cronies are useless. I cannot hug those fools. I only have girlfriend, not crony),” he said in jest as he spoke before the farmers.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 4, 2019, Nikkei\u2019s contributing writer, Aurora Almendral, wrote an article that claimed the President vowed to \u201cdestroy the Philippine\u2019s elite\u201d because he \u201cchose his own.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nikkei report, titled \u201cCrony capital: How Duterte embraced the oligarchs,\u201d said during the presidential campaign, Duterte took aim at the \u201ccorruption and excesses of wealth-hoarding families\u201d like the Ongpin clan.<\/p>\n

The report, however, claimed that Duterte\u2019s three years in office showed that the systemic transformation has turned out to be \u201cmore like a personal vendetta.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labor groups have also seen Duterte’s threat against two water firms Manila Water and Maynilad, as well as local broadcast network ABS-CBN, as part of his alleged plan to favor his cronies.<\/p>\n

Duterte, however, said he considered Manila Water and Maynilad as “big fishes” that take advantage of their consumers.<\/p>\n

“Marami akong problema, may mga walang hiya, itong mga<\/em>\u00a0water concessionaire. (I have many problems. These water concessionaires are shameless),” he said.<\/p>\n

He has repeatedly slammed water firms Manila Water and Maynilad due to the supposed “onerous” provisions included in their present deals with the government.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, he said the two concessionaires can only either accept the new water contract drafted by the government or face cancellation of the existing water deals.<\/p>\n

In his latest speech, Duterte also took a swipe at Isidro Consunji, a shareholder of Maynilad and chair of DMCI Holdings Inc., after the latter reacted to the President’s tirades against the two water companies.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Consunji said he could not understand where Duterte is coming from because the previous water concession contract was not drafted by the private sector.<\/p>\n

Duterte lamented that Consunji had the time to comment on the latest issue on water, while the latter has a problem with the Ecoland 4000 condominium in Davao City that collapsed after a powerful quake in October 2019. The condominium was built by a DMCI subsidiary.<\/p>\n

“Noong isang araw, nag-salita siya<\/em>\u00a0about concession\u00a0sa<\/em>\u00a0water.\u00a0Sabi ko, ikaw may problema ka, unahin mo ang problema sa tao<\/em>\u00a0(The other day, he talked about the water concession deal. I said, you have a problem with other people, fix it first),” he said.<\/p>\n

“Que<\/em>\u00a0builder\u00a0ka,<\/em>\u00a0Consunji\u00a0ka man o hindi, kapag naasar ako sa’yo<\/em>\u00a0(If you are a builder, either you are Consunji or not, if I get pissed), I will not grant you any permit you to dig,” Duterte added.<\/p>\n

OK with oligarchs with ‘social conscience’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duterte said one of the pressing problems in the country is the existence of “shameless” oligarchs.<\/p>\n

He said the rich usually choose their preferred presidential candidate for their own benefit.<\/p>\n

“Tayong mahihirap wala tayong problema. Ang problema dito sa Pilipinas ngayon, yung mga mayayaman<\/em>\u00a0(The poor have no problem. The problem here in our country now is the oligarchs),” he said.<\/p>\n

“Hindi ako galit sa mga mayayaman<\/em>\u00a0but usually or historically, it has always been the oligarch,\u00a0yung sa taas, mamili sila ng Presidente na kandidato. ‘Pag nandoon na, puro pabor, pabor, pabor<\/em>\u00a0(I’m not mad at rich people but usually or historically, it has always been the oligarchs who choose their presidential bet. If elected, they always ask for a favor),” he added.<\/p>\n

He, however, made it clear that everything is well with the rich who have “social conscience.”<\/p>\n

“Kaya ang may problema sa Pilipinas sa panahon ko, yung mga mayayaman na walang hiya. Kayong mga mayayaman na<\/em>\u00a0you know, you have the social conscience,\u00a0wala kayong problema sa akin<\/em>\u00a0(The problem in the Philippines under my watch is the shameless oligarchs. Those rich who have a social conscience, you have no problem with me),” he said.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday vehemently denied that he has started his own brand of cronyism in the country …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":241864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-ruth-abbey-gita-carlos","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241865,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241863\/revisions\/241865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/241864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}