BAYAN: DU30’s SONA full of rants, empty

President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s 5th State of the Nation Address (Sona) is nothing but full of rants, arrogance, no essence and without clear concrete roadmap for coronavirus pandemic recovery, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) Bicol spokesman Vince Casilihan said.

“There’s no essence. It was a rant of the nation address full of arrogance,” Casilihan said in an interview. He said that Duterte is exploiting the coronavirus pandemic as a leeway to spread lies and cover up his failures in governing the country.

“The pandemic is wrongly framed as a war instead of a public crisis. There’s no clear plan for Covid-19 recovery,” he said.

He said that the Duterte administration’s failure to flatten the curve of Covid-19 has resulted to an economic recession, making thousands of Filipinos jobless amidst the pandemic.

“Sa apat na taon, political and economic rights ang matinding naaatake. Kabuhayan at karapatan ng mamamayan mas tuminding kahirapan, mas lumala ang pamamaslang, mas lumalala ang pangungutang,” Casilihan said.

“Duterte is also using the pandemic to enact the Anti-Terror Act (ATA), suppressing the freedom of the press, for pushing the Transport Modernization Act which are tantamount and completely anti-poor programs,” he added.

BAYAN Bicol believed that Duterte and his minions are using the Covid-19 pandemic as a mechanism to push for his personal agenda to rule as a dictator, and crush all the critics of his administration.

Casilihan cited the report of Karapatan Bicol that there are 556 incidents of human rights violations and 89 cases of extrajudicial killings across the Bicol region since Duterte assumed as president.

He urged Bicolanos to unite and stand up against and in defending democratic rights of the people, which are being trampled by Duterte.

Militant organizations BAYAN and Gabriela held rallies in Legazpi and Naga cities on Monday, July 27 coinciding with President Duterte’s fifth State of the Nation Address.