PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is issuing many directives to ensure that the needs of the country have been addressed, contrary to the public's belief that he is merely focused on his drug war, a Palace official said Wednesday.
“He (Duterte) is doing a lot of which people don’t see. ‘Cause what he does is, especially during the meetings that most of us don’t see, [he] gives a lot of directives,” Assistance Secretary and Deputy Executive Director of Performance and Project Management of the Cabinet Secretary Jonas George Soriano said in a press briefing.
This was Soriano’s statement after Duterte’s ally, former President Fidel Ramos, said Tuesday in a television interview that his successor’s focus should not just be on the war on drugs and fighting crime.
Soriano said the administration is now working on a platform that would combine both the development needs and the security needs of the Filipino people.
“So what happens is that every secretary wants to get an ear to the President and say, ‘This is what I believe should happen. This is my proposal. But I need some help from you, President. These are what we need,’” Soriano said.
Meanwhile, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella denied the claim of Ramos that Duterte lacked a long-term strategic vision for the country.
Abella cited that the government is plotting “AmBisyon 2040,” which will provide long-term visions that will last until 2040.
“The President does have a long-term vision for the Philippines, especially based on the ‘AmBisyon 2040,’ which extends all the way to 2040… It hasn’t really been expounded on, it’s not public knowledge but he does have a vision for that,” Abella said.
“In fact, even in his inaugural speech, he already said a comfortable life for all. It is basically short common phase in order to be able to articulate what is already fully articulated in ‘AmBisyon 2040,’” he added. (Sunnex)
