Reproductive Health

Let me start this Counter-SONA by thanking the President for his continued support for the Reproductive Health Law, particularly with his issuance of Executive Order No. 12 on January 9, 2017 which calls for the full implementation of the RH Law, particularly attaining an sustaining "zero unmet need for modern family planning."

To give emphasis to his endorsement of the RH Law, the President went to the extent of castigating the Supreme Court for issuing a TRO enjoining the use and procurement of Implanon and Implanon NXT, which are the hormonal contraceptives of choice by countless women.

However, the President’s remonstration against the High Court came too late because the Supreme Court has already issued a final decision upholding the TRO and even extending it to other contraceptives, unless certified by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that they are not abortifacient in a process akin to a quasi-judicial jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, it should be underscored that teenage pregnancy in the country is still on the rise and the UN Population Fund and the Department of Health said in 2016 that the Philippines does not only have the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Asia, it is also the only country in the Asia-Pacific Region where the rate of teen pregnancies rose over the last two decades. Dependent unemployed juvenile mothers and their unplanned children contribute to the erosion of the country’s economic gains.

Moreover, high maternal deaths have not been contained and our contraceptive prevalence rate still falls below international standards.

In this light, the FDA has to expedite the contraceptive certification process pursuant to the decision of the Supreme Court. Women should not be deprived access to the contraceptives they need and want now.

We have an internationally acclaimed Reproductive Health Law but there is much to be desired in its implementation.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the President to walk the talk so that we will have children by choice, not by chance; mothers who survive the travails of pregnancy and childbirth; well-nourished and educated children; young people who are fully aware of their reproductive health rights through comprehensive and age-appropriate RH and sexuality education both in public and private schools; and a competent and productive manpower resource.

Golden Age of Infrastructure

I am also congratulating the President for embarking on a program of extensive infrastructure development which he calls the “golden age of infrastructure”. According to him, 7% of GDP by 2022 will be earmarked for infrastructure.

This gives efficacy to the truism that infrastructure development is the engine of growth:

1. It enhances the construction of highways, irrigation systems, power installations, communications and information technology facilities, school buildings and government structures which facilitate the delivery of basic services to the people;

2. It generates much needed employment; and

3. It encourages foreign investments.

We earnestly hope that the progressive mantra of “build, build and build” will supersede the wayward policy of “kill, kill and kill”.

We also hope that the foreign funders of infrastructure projects, like China, will grant concessionary loans, minimize their monopoly of supply and labor components and will construct projects of structural integrity, to avert the fate of the 12-billion US dollar Sigiri bridge which China built in Western Kenya that collapsed shortly before it was completed.

The President must be wary of China’s offer to construct two bridges spanning the Pasig River “for free” in view of the Kenya engineering disaster.

We likewise hope that the policy of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) where Filipino rated contractors play major roles is not abandoned, as is the trend now, in favor of foreign capital whose chosen firms construct the projects.

It is important to underscore that the President’s 10-point Socio-Economic Agenda highlights PPP when it undertook to “accelerate annual infrastructure … with Public-Private Partnership playing a key role.” However, at the end of the first year of the Duterte Administration, not a single new PPP project has been implemented.

Environment over Mines

We also welcome the President’s announcement that environmental protection must be prioritized over mining operations. But this must be taken with a grain of salt because despite former Environment Secretary Gina Lopez’s articulation of the same policy, which the President reiterated, he failed to have her appointment confirmed by a Commission on Appointments principally composed of his allies in the supermajority.

EJK on illegal drugs and human rights violations

President Duterte undertook that within three months of his assumption of office he would eradicate the drug problem. He failed within the said period and asked for a six-month extension that was later lengthened up to the end of his term, as the drug menace has not been abated.

He refuses to realize that the drug problem is both a health and poverty issue, not simply a police matter.

He has relentlessly embarked on a deadly campaign against drug users and traffickers. This violent policy has dismally failed in other countries like Thailand, Colombia, and Mexico.

The President vowed to “unrelentingly and unremittingly” pursue his war against drugs despite the mounting summary killings and regardless of the criticism from international leaders, global human rights bodies and local advocates.

The Constitution mandates the protection and promotion of human rights. The Philippines is a signatory and state-party to numerous international multi-lateral covenants on upholding human rights which the State is obligated to protect, promote and fulfill.

It is most regrettable that President Duterte denigrates human rights. He even branded human rights advocates as enemies of the State. He has repeatedly said that “criminals have no human rights.”

The President’s ongoing bloody campaign against drug dealers and users is a “centerpiece” of human rights transgressions. More than 8,000 victims, mostly coming from the poor sectors, have been sacrificed without due process to the barrel of the gun.

In the recent review by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva last May 8, 2017, 45 out of the 47 member countries of the Council recommended that human rights violations committed under the Duterte administration in relation to the drug campaign must be investigated. The two sole dissenters were the Philippines and China.

His violent campaign may be “popular” because people mistakenly view it as a peace and order drive, but it is errant, improvident, unlawful and derogates human rights.

Yes, we have a drug problem. But the President’s violent solution aggravates the problem.

The oft-repeated and lengthy reference of the President to the Balangiga massacre in 1901 wherein American forces committed gross human rights violations against Filipinos is most patriotic but does not exculpate him of his own human rights violations.

It is the President, not the human rights advocates, who trivializes human rights by unabated extrajudicial killings perpetrated by police authorities at his behest and condonation.

The President’s insistence on the reimposition of the death penalty, now pending in the Senate, exacerbates the human rights situation.

His argument that it is a deterrent and is for retributive justice is grossly flawed. Empirical studies here and abroad show that the death penalty is not a deterrent to the commission of heinous crimes and the modern concept of penology is reformative justice, not punitive or retributive.

Tax Reform Package Plagues the Poor

Inflation rate fell from 3.1% in May to 2.8% in June. However, the proposed tax reform measure may ignite or exacerbate inflation. While it reduces income tax rates for those who pay their income taxes religiously, it is insidious to those workers, underground or aboveground, whose incomes are so low they need not pay income taxes to begin with and cannot possibly benefit from reduced income tax rates, but will be forced to pay higher prices for goods and services due to the cascading effects of new and additional excise taxes.

I acknowledge that the present administration, like all other administrations and governments, needs additional revenues to fund priority projects and programs like infrastructure, health, education and social protection.

However, the tax reform package must have sufficient enabling safeguards to protect the vulnerable sectors from the ultimate burden of new and/or additional excise taxes generated from petroleum products, sugar-sweetened beverages, motor vehicles and the expanded base of the value added tax.

To protect the poor, the present zero-rated kerosene and LPG, the products patronized by the poor, must not be subject to excise taxes of P3.00 per liter for the first year, P2.00 for the second year and P1.00 for the third year or eventually a total of P6.00 per liter. The marginalized sectors cannot afford this escalating tax imposition.

The unconditional cash voucher program to selected poor families cannot compensate for the ill effects of cascading excise taxes on the purchasing capacity of vulnerable sectors.

Traffic mess has become messier

There is no light at the end of the tunnel for the escalating traffic mess in Metro Manila and other urban centers. Apparently, the President has thrown in the towel when he admitted that EDSA is the “alley of perdition”. He also said that there are no funds to solve the traffic problem.

No end to Endo and Contractualization

Labor expected the President to say what is happening to his campaign promise to jettison “Endo” and contractualization. He did not say a word.

Preliminary figures show the unemployment rate to have dropped from 6.1% in April 2016 to 5.7% in April 2017. The underemployment rate for the same period fell from 18.3% to 16.1%. The 5.7% unemployment rate in April 2017 is, however, still higher than the 5.5% rate for the whole of 2016.

Worrisome, however, is the persistence of endo and contractualization. Of the estimated 197,219 contractual workers at the start of the Duterte administration, only 49,393 have been regularized as of June 16, 2017. What is even more alarming and appalling is that, in the words of DOLE Undersecretary Joel Maglunsod, “in 2016, a total of 48,116 workers were regularized while from January to June this year only 1,277 were regularized.” Has the campaign lost steam? Or, worse, has the administration lost interest in the campaign?

The promulgation of Department Order (D.O.) 174 last March did not outlaw contractualization but merely intensified its regulation by requiring independent service contractors to have adequate capital and the wherewithal of production like machines, tools and equipment.

While D.O. 174 continues to outlaw labor-only contracting, where the labor contractor is a mere alter ego of the principal employer, it reinforces the trilateral work relationship among the principal (end-user capitalist), an independent contractor and the workers.

Contractualization remains an instrument of exploitation of labor. Instead of affording workers the right to sell their labor power directly to the capitalist end-user, they are forced to sell cheap to the middleman.

Under Article 106 of the Labor Code, the “Secretary of Labor may, by appropriate regulations, restrict or prohibit the contracting out of labor to protect the rights of workers established under this Code.” Hence, there is even no need for legislation to outlaw all forms of contractualization.

“Independent Foreign Policy”: Subservience to China

It is unbelievable that President Duterte’s concept of “independent foreign policy” is belittling or even rejecting traditional diplomatic and trade partners like the United States and countries belonging to the European Union (EU), and unquestionably tying the knot with China and Russia.

President Duterte’s dalliance with China is particularly worrisome. He was pathetic when he admitted helplessness when Chinese President Xi Jinping threatened to go to war if the Philippines would enforce its sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea.

Helplessness is never an option as recourse to the United Nations and enforcement of international agreements are readily available.

The problem of the President is compounded because he could have succumbed to a barefaced bluff, as China would not go ballistic in the face of certitude of international sanctions and counter-military actions from Philippine allies.

Duterte’s acceptance with alacrity of the Chinese promises of aid and investments appears to be in exchange for not enforcing the arbitral award of the United Nations-supported Permanent Court of Arbitration in favor of the Philippines over the vast and resource-rich areas of the West Philippine Sea, including the Philippine Rise, formerly called Benham Rise.

He said yesterday that he would address the arbitral award in favor of the Philippines sooner or later. Start enforcing it now, not later, Mr. President.

Sacrificing Philippine sovereignty for contingent aid and investment from an expansionist and militarist China is definitely not a measure of an independent foreign policy.

Peace Accords: Quo Vadis?

One of the campaign promises of President Duterte, which was initially taking off, was the peace settlement with the CPP-NDF. But President Duterte has now “decided to abandon the talks…” and he recently taunted CPP founding chairperson Jose Ma. Sison “…to renew the fighting for another 50 years”.

The projected peace accord with the Muslim separatists has not even started when martial law was declared in Marawi City and the entire Mindanao. The precipitate and unwarranted declaration of martial law and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in Mindanao have pushed back the peace settlement with the mainstream Muslim insurgents farther to the periphery.

The Myth of the “Marawi Siege”

The Poorest in the Bottom Poor Cluster of Provinces is Lanao del Sur with 66.6% poverty incidence (Philippine Statistics Authority 2015). Amidst this economic wretchedness was an Islamic enclave of bustling business, a sought-after tourist destination – Marawi City. Two months of fierce fighting between the Moro terrorists led by the Maute group and government forces carrying out orders for conducting inordinately devastating airstrikes and land assaults, an impetus of the martial law declaration, has reduced the once charming city to rubble.

The “siege of Marawi” is a malevolent myth. The lawless violence did not amount to a siege. In fact, the Marawi City Hall and the Provincial Capitol of Lanao del Sur, the seats of local government, were never overrun or captured by the terrorists.

Verily, “retaking” or “liberating” Marawi is an exaggeration because Marawi City was never taken by the extremists.

The dominance of the men and armaments of the Armed Forces and the police was always ascendant over the Maute and Abu Sayyaf fighters.

At no instance before, during and after the issuance of Proclamation No. 216 was the Republic’s sovereignty really imperiled and its territorial integrity compromised.

The oft-repeated reference that Mindanao is the “hotbed of rebellion” is now more a matter of expression than a dangerous verity.

The appalling escalation of deaths of soldiers and terrorists, including innocent civilians; massive destruction of both public and private properties; and the widespread displacement of residents, many of whom have died in cramped and unsanitary makeshift evacuation centers, are the horrific aftermath of the declaration of martial law, which were not the prevailing conditions on the ground at the time Proclamation No. 216 was issued on May 23, 2017, and this tragic aftermath cannot be the reason for a 150-day extension of martial law in the whole of Mindanao because such extension will further aggravate the wanton deaths and devastation.

Populist Accounts and Expletives

Because of time constraints, addressing the President’s legislative agenda will be in a separate privilege speech.

Again, with the President’s usual populist rhetoric and pedestrian expletives, he has successfully connected with the masses even as he was wildly applauded by his supermajority allies in the Congress.

But what actually did he say about the state of the nation? He said "We are in for trouble because we live in troubled and uncertain times. And I fear that things might get worse before they become better." His prescription to this cryptic assessment is: more of martial law, more of summary killings and hell to his critics.