ILOILO City – This is President Rodrigo Duterte’s marching order to Visayas mayors in the recent Visayas Island Cluster Conference in Cebu City: Double time in the campaign against illegal drugs and corruption.
According to Mayor Jett Rojas of Ajuy, Iloilo, “We have to double time. Magtrabaho gid. There must be no letup in the campaign. The President hates illegal drugs and corruption.”
Rojas, president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Iloilo Chapter, led Iloilo mayors in the conference from Aug. 20 to 21 at Radisson Blu Hotel in Cebu City.
The President met with the Visayas mayors a month after his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in July when he reiterated the government won’t be bullied by critics of his antidrug campaign.
President Duterte said where before the war resulted in the seizure of illegal drugs worth millions of pesos, today they run into billions in peso value.
“I can only shudder at the harm that those drugs could have caused had they reached the streets of every province, city, municipality, barangay and community throughout the country,” said the President.
Rojas said Iloilo mayors agreed with the President and in fact have been busy strengthening their respective drives, on top of other concerns such as the problem on insurgency.
According to Mayor Siegfredo Betita of Carles who also attended the conference, Duterte denied the allegation of communist leader Jose Maria Sison that he was very ill and comatose.
“He said Sison was wrong. The President is very much alive and kicking,” said Betita.
Regarding the upcoming 2019 midterm elections, according to Rojas, the President said he would remain nonpartisan.
“Hambal niya nga sa 2019 elections wala siya sang kampihan,” said Rojas.
Meanwhile, the Carles mayor said, local chief executives also discussed solid waste management during the conference.
Specifically, they tackled how to go about with waste segregation (biodegradable and non-biodegradable materials).
In his SONA last month, the President said government actions in Boracay Island “mark the beginning of a new national effort.”
“Other tourist destinations needing urgent rehabilitation and enforcement of environmental and other laws shall soon follow,” said the President who had described Boracay a cesspool due environmental degradation.
Rojas said they were also introduced to solar energy that may be used in far-flung villages./PN
