DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday slammed the administration’s “Daang Matuwid” or straight path platform, saying it failed to stop corruption and rising criminality because it was just an illusion.
“I’m running [for President] because I’m angry with the government,” Duterte said during the start of the PDP-Laban’s campaign in Tondo, Manila, on Tuesday night.
“There is no straight path.”
Duterte said the Aquino administration was too inefficient to solve the Filipinos’ problems.
“This government may be of the people and by the people, but definitely this government is not for the people,” he said.
But the leaders of the ruling Liberal Party dismissed Duterte’s statement, saying he had no experience and the country would be doomed under his presidency.
President Benigno Aquino III, who was catapulted to the presidency after the death of his mother Corazon Aquino, brought the term “Daang Matuwid” to national prominence in 2010 after his administration filed various corruption charges against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. He promised that under the straight path, he would end corruption and make the country progressive.
Former Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II, Aquino’s anointed, promised to build on what Aquino had achieved under the straight path.
In his home province Capiz on Tuesday, Roxas vowed to “defeat thieves, tricksters and abusers” who, he said, were blocking the straight path, referring to his rivals Vice President Jejomar Binay, Senator Grace Poe and Duterte.
Roxas’ allies said Duterte must be “really blind” after failing to see the benefits under the straight path, including the economic gains made by the administration.
The LP’s chairman for political and electoral affairs, Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice, said Duterte’s mindset of “instant solutions” on curing the country’s problems would bring the country greater harm.
“Reforms cannot be done overnight, the mistakes of the past 40 years cannot be cured in 6 years. His instant solutions to problems are doomed to create more problems to our country and people,” Erice told The Standard in a text message. John Paolo Bencito
“The Philippines will doomed to have a Duterte presidency.”
Duterte has repeatedly vowed to end criminality within six months of his presidency and challenged criminals to get him before he becomes President.
But Erice questioned Duterte’s capabilities, saying his experience in Davao City was not enough to prove he could lead the country.
“Davao is just a creek compared to the country which is an ocean,” Erice said.
