July 23, 2019
BACOLOD CITY -- Negros
Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson on Tuesday said the fourth State of the
Nation Address (SONA) of President Rodrigo R. Duterte has set the direction for
governance in the final three years of his administration.
 |
THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE. President
Rodrigo Duterte delivers his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) during
the opening of the 18th Congress at Batasang Pambansa in Quezon City on Monday. (Photo
by Avito C. Dalan)
Lacson noted that
the President emphasized his relentless pursuit against illegal drugs and
corruption in his speech that lasted for about an hour and 30 minutes.
He quoted Duterte
as saying that, “No amount of euphemism can trivialize betrayal of public trust.”
The President
also said that “corruption continues and emasculates the courage we need to
sustain our moral recovery initiatives,” calling it “both a national
embarrassment and a national shame”.
The governor also
welcomed Duterte’s directive to prioritize the streamlining of government
processes by instructing local government units to ensure that all clearances
and permits are issued within three days.
Lacson added that
Duterte’s assurance of his focus on social adequacy through preparedness and security
was shown in his act of urging the Congress to approve the creation of
Department of Water Resources and Department of Disaster Resilience and Fire
Protection.
He further said
that the drop in poverty incidence is a good indicator that the administration
is on the right path in the fight against prevalent poverty.
In his speech,
Duterted cited the decrease in poverty incidence from 27.6 percent in the first
half of 2015 to 21 percent in the first half of 2018, but said that “the most
important number, though, is the six million Filipinos we need to pull out from
poverty.”
“I am in total
agreement with the President that there is much to be done in ensuring our
responsiveness to the people’s needs,” Lacson said.
The governor
added: “In the end, I guess we are all one with the President in his dream of a
better Philippines, better than the one we grew up with.”
On Tuesday,
Lacson, Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia, and other city and municipal
mayors in Negros Occidental will attend the post-SONA gathering with the
President at The Manila Hotel.
The meeting,
themed “Patuloy na Pag-unlad, Malasakit at Pagkakaisa, at Katatagan: A Post
SONA Meeting of the President with the Local Chief Executives on the Prospect
of Constitutional Reform,” will provide an avenue for national and local
governments to “discuss collective accomplishments for the mid-year, and steer
direction for the remainder of the year.”(PNA)
