MANILA, Philippines – Rodrigo Duterte and Alan Peter Cayetano unveiled their platform in Cebu City on Thursday, January 7.
Since then, they have been expounding on it during other events and through online videos.
In Cebu, Cayetano used a Powerpoint presentation to lay out their common platform to media. Duterte, meanwhile, communicated the platform through his speeches in a public assembly and a gathering of Cebu local government officials. (WATCH: Rodrigo Duterte in Cebu: It's time for a new Visayan hero)
Notably, Duterte denounced extrajudicial killing in speeches he gave in Cebu City.
To Cebu mayors on January 7, he said: “There will be killings. There will be a lot of blood. I’m up against criminals and criminal syndicates, but I will assure you there will be no extrajudicial killing. There is no honor in it.”
Duterte has been accused of direct involvement with vigilante-style killing of criminals in Davao City by a death squad.
What would the Philippines be like if Duterte and Cayetano are elected president and vice president, respectively? Here’s what they said they would do.
Note: Items with an asterisk (*) were specifically mentioned by Duterte in public statements
1. On crime, corruption, and drugs
Campaign promise: Go after drug lords and criminals within 3 to 6 months after election into office.
- Increase police salaries to P75,000 to P100,000 within 3 years*
- Modernize crime-fighting strategies, like putting CCTVs in major thoroughfares
- Bring back the death penalty for drug trafficking, kidnapping, rape, robbery, homicide*
- Pass the Freedom of Information Act*
- Lift Bank Secrecy Law for public officials and pass Anti-Dummy Law
- Monitor front-line government offices using real-time video and audio surveillance
- Bring back special criminal courts to speed up resolution of serious crime cases
2. On economic development
Campaign promise: Spread economic growth throughout the country and decongest Metro Manila.
- Call a constitutional convention, within first year of term, to study the shift to a federal form of government*
- Limit requirements for business permits to 5 signatures and impose a 60-day processing time*
- Maintain Conditional Cash Transfer program but add a job component (Duterte said he is still mulling over this)
- Establish tourism, agricultural, and industrial hubs in the countryside to create jobs*
- Introduce P1 billion “small capital fund” for every region outside Metro Manila
- Create specialized hospitals (heart, lung, kidney) in Visayas and Mindanao
3. On agriculture and fisheries
- Provide free irrigation and subsidized fertilizer and seeds for farmers
- Reduce the cost of food by up to 50% by getting rid of unscrupulous middlemen and loan sharks*
- Invest in food terminals with cold storage facilities*
- Build Mindanao Railway system*
- Create a Department of Fisheries, separate from the Department of Agriculture
4. On OFWs and other workers
Campaign promise: Improve labor conditions for Filipino workers.
- No income tax for workers earning P20,000 and below*
- Subsidize PhilHealth premiums of farmers, transport workers, and market vendors
- Phase out contractualization*
- Create a bank for Overseas Filipino Workers to provide risk- and hassle-free investment opportunities for OFW remittances
- Abolish unnecessary permits and procedures for OFWs (like Overseas Employment Certificate)
5. On Metro Manila transportation
Campaign promise: Improve mobility of people and goods. (READ: Duterte reveals plan to solve Metro Manila transpo woes)
- Add more carriages to train lines*
- Build fast train linking airports and seaports to Metro Manila*
- Develop Clark Airport and Batangas seaport to ease traffic congestion*
6. On education
- Double salaries of teachers by the end of their term*
- Build adequate classrooms, double classroom shifts*
7. On disasters and climate change
- Create a single, permanent Emergency Response Department in charge of disaster preparedness, relief, and rehabilitation
Different communication styles
Asked why they did not present the platform together, Cayetano said it boiled down to a difference in “communication styles.”
“I’ve been in Congress for 15 years, he’s been in the streets of Davao for 30 years, so ask me to do a Duterte sa masa (for the masses), that won’t be me. Ask him to do a Powerpoint in a hall, that won’t be him. So it’s just a role-playing. But 100% of the platform came from him and me,” he told Rappler on Friday, January 8.
In an ambush interview, Duterte said he had adopted Cayetano’s platform but that they each have their priority issues.
“The other issues of governance are his. As for mine, I am sure he will not want to tinker with law and order, criminality, and drugs because that really gets bloody,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino. – Rappler.com
What do you think of the Duterte-Cayetano platform? Share your thoughts by commenting below.