SENATOR Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, who joined the opening of the Electric MassKara Thursday night, lauded the Bacoleños for their resilience and optimism as the MassKara Festival was born out of tragedy.
As Bacolod celebrates the festival’s 37th year, the senator congratulated the people and their city officials for what the MassKara has become today.
During the opening rites at the Tourism Strip on Lacson Street, Aquino joined Mayor Evelio Leonardia, Representative Greg Gasataya, Councilor Caesar Distrito, and Councilor Em Ang.
In an interview earlier Thursday, Aquino pledged his support for the retention of the Negros Island Region (NIR), adding that he is willing to lobby to his colleagues at the Senate for the needed legislative action.
“NIR should be retained because it was done through a thorough study done in several years. It was not done in rush so its dissolution should not be that easy too,” Aquino added.
He also said that he will look at the reasons of Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno of opposing the budget for NIR. He cited the huge budgetary requirement of the new region for his recommendation to dissolve the NIR.
“Maybe we can take a look at these reasons again. But I think the goal is to focus the services in the area. The concentration of support and services for this new region is there,” he said. “There are a number of things in the budget that is also bigger, but so bigger budget should not be a reason because you know your budget determines your priorities so if you are willing to fund that means it's your priority. So we want to understand what his reasons are.”
He added that the two Negros provinces have already made the preparations for the new region and in fact, Kabankalan City has been preparing to be the regional center.
Meanwhile, Aquino said that maybe President Rodrigo Duterte may just be joking when he reportedly introduced Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos in China to be the next vice president should he win the electoral protest over Vice President Leni Robredo.
“It’s very troubling for us. Personally, I and this region who supported the Vice President greatly,” he added.
Clarification on policy
Moreover, Aquino said Thursday that the administration should clarify the independent foreign policy being pushed by Duterte.
Aquino said pushing for independent foreign policy doesn’t mean that the country needs to cut ties with other nations like the United States.
He said that he is supportive of the move to get more investments from China, but the country should not cut ties with its other allies.
Many Filipinos are living and working (in the US and Europe), he said.
“If we cut ties, many would go to waste. Not only the aide, the military exercises, but we do business with them, they have investments here, there are many Filipinos living there,” he pointed out.
Aquino said that independent foreign policy should “chart our course on what’s best for the Philippines.”
“I’m hoping we can come up with a clarification on our foreign policy,” the senator added.
On Duterte’s first 100 days in office, Aquino admitted that the administration had implemented reforms.
“To be very honest, a lot of reforms are being implemented,” he said, adding that a lot have been done if you look at the departments.
However, the senator pointed out that the more popular issue is the rising number of vigilante killings due to the administration’s all-out war against illegal drugs, which is “quite troubling.”