Ad-Dustour / Wikimedia Commons United Architects of the Philippines Garciabillyjoe / Wikimedia Commons Department of National Defense / Flickr Leif Inge Fosen / Unsplash. 1 The research programs of the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies (UP CIDS) were formed to examine and evaluate current national policies along multidisciplinary themes, with the ultimate goal of producing policy recommendations. In July 2019, the UP CIDS Program on Social and Political Change (PSPC), together with the Decolonial Studies Program (DSP), the Islamic Studies Program (ISP), the Data Science for Public Policy Program (DSPP), the Program on Escape from the Middle - Income Trap: Chains for Change (EMIT C4C) and the Strategic Studies Program (SSP), convened to discuss relevant issues and policy recommendations in the context of the policy push of President Rodrigo Duterte's administration as it approached the middle term.
The UP CIDS programs held a roundtable discussion five days before the Fourth State of the Union Address (SONA) of President Duterte in 2019. In this round table, a panel of scholars and policy experts selected aspects of the Duterte administration's performance from 2016 to 2019. What were the statements of the Duterte administration on the first three years of its term in the selected areas or initiatives.
What are the likely administrative and political challenges ahead in the remaining three years of the Duterte presidency. How does the first three years of the Duterte administration compare to the first three years of the previous administration under Benigno Aquino III.
THE STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS
5 Article VII, Section 23 of the 1987 Constitution authorizes the President of the Philippines to address a joint session of Congress at the commencement of its first regular session. 7 The presentation that I will give is mainly about the political rhetoric of the President, but I did not limit it to only the President's speeches. I also included some comparisons to what the president has said publicly compared to past presidents.
This particular presentation is also based on a research panel of some of my colleagues from the UP Department of Political Science presented during the recent international conference of the Philippine Political Science Association. A text corpus was collected by the UP CIDS Program on Data Science for Public Policy (DSPP), and Asst. Alicor Panao and I analyzed and looked at the corpus or the collection of public statements of the president.
Holder, UP CIDS Program on Data Science for Public Policy and Associate Professor, UP Department of Political Science.
PANEL ONE
In recent years we have characterized the president's policies as drug-oriented or drug-related, but if we try to look at the president's rhetoric, you will see in Figure 12 (on the facing page) that the "police" exist. First, I don't think the president is at all convinced of the need for constitutional change. The second is that it could still happen, but it won't be the result of the president's initiative.
Remember, after Duterte's committee submitted a draft to Congress, it was Arroyo who kept it on the President's agenda. The other point that I tried to make at the beginning is that this project can stay alive, but it's not going to be because of the president—maybe it's because of other political actors. What are the likely challenges ahead in the remaining years of the Duterte presidency on the foreign policy issue.
He said that for the past SONAs, whatever the president says on the podium is the SONA. This meant that whatever was prepared by the Office of the President was the SONA. Gatmaytan pointed out that there are specific provisions in the Constitution that limit the president's power.
Some of these limitations are the creation of treaties and the role of the Senate in the process. This meant that the Philippines is not getting the best of both worlds from the president's rhetoric and actual foreign policy. He argued that some of the president's supporters may be either human or machine, and this needs to be clarified.
Gatmaytan also referred to one of the president's remarks about the jailing of individuals who filed charges against him. He emphasized that it is not just rhetoric and the president actually believes his statement. He claimed that the president compensates for everything he does in terms of foreign policy with his social policy.
He pointed out that we also assign meanings to the words the president would say. Taguibao emphasized that his presentation was simply a broad outline of the things the president has said.
PANEL TWO
He asked LGUs to cooperate with the Department of the Interior and Local Government's (DILG) campaign for federalism. Both seem to recognize the LGUs' role in providing health services and protecting the environment. Of course, President Duterte emphasized the role of the LGUs in the aspect of peace and order.
Inevitably, one of the things President Duterte had to do was mention the arbitration award. You will not see any mention of the AFP in the SONA documents of the Duterte administration. Not to mention, Israel stepped in and supplied the government with weapons at the height of the war.
If he pursues federalism, the implications of the Philippine Constitution on the BARMM will be immense. Indeed, the BARMM is actually under strict control of the President through the Chief Minister. I am not going to talk directly about the SONA, but rather about the progress of the economy in the last three years and other prospects in the medium term.
The result is that there is continuity in policy, which is the strong preference of the economic team. Atienza also hoped that the president would discuss possible changes to Article X of the 1987 Constitution – which deals with local governments. Wadi emphasized the president's intentions when discussing violent extremism and the perspective of foreign governments.
Kraft, one of the interesting things about the Human Security Act is that it is a counterterrorism law. Kraft claimed that the arrests of the Maute brothers' parents at the time were attributed to the imposition of martial law. Kraft argued that this is part of the political theater the president is staging.
He surmised that the Philippines' competitive advantage in this sector was institutional laxity. China is a rising power in the same way that the US and Germany were rising at the turn of the century and the US was able to take on Britain.
77 The UP Center for Integrative and Development Studies (UP CIDS) wishes to express its gratitude to Dr. Tigno, co-convener of the UP CIDS Program on Social and Political Change (PSPC), to conceptualize and lead the organization of "Mga Pahayag" at Sabisabi sa SONA 2019: A UP Roundtable Discussion.” UP CIDS also wishes to thank the program staff of its Program on Social and Political Change (PSPC), Program on Alternative Development (AltDev), Decolonial Studies Program (DSP), Program on Data Science for Public Policy (DSPP), Islamic Studies Program (ISP) , Program on Escaping the Middle-Income Trap: Chains for Change (EMIT C4C), Political Economy Program (PEP) and Strategic Studies Program (SSP), whose team efforts led to the success of this event.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
