Move forward but never forget

OFFICE OF AKBAYAN PARTY-LIST REP. TOM VILLARIN

PRESS RELEASE

July 26, 2016

AKBAYAN SOLON: MOVE FORWARD BUT NEVER FORGET

Akbayan Party-list Rep. Tom Villarin urged the public to remain vigilant and hold President Rodrigo Duterte accountable for his words in the campaign trail and and his actions as the highest elected official in the land.

"This administration should be as eager in ending contractualization and providing regular jobs, as they are in ending criminality and drug trade. After all, the tendency to take on illegitimate sources of income can be related to the lack of regular and decent jobs," Villarin stressed.

During the campaign, Duterte's promised to end the practice of "endo" or contractual labor but the issue was barely elaborated in his address.

"We welcome President Rodrigo Duterte's vision of a country that respects and upholds the law. But as we look and move forward, we must learn from our experience of social injustice and inequality as a people," the lawmaker said.

This was in reference to the President's commitment to hold betrayers of public trust accountable yet allowing former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo walk free from all charges against her and former dictator Ferdinand Marcos to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

"By allowing these to happen, we reinforce inequality and defend the status quo where rich and powerful criminals are legally protected while the poor are summarily executed. That is not change," Villarin said.

The Akbayan solon also believes that the administration must fully appreciate fundamental human rights if it is to take on a genuinely human approach to development.

"I was disturbed when the president may have created a false dichotomy between curbing criminality and respecting the innate rights of every human being," Villarin said.

"We believe that there is a balance between building a nation towards greater ideals and protecting the dignity of every Filipino, and that it is incumbent upon any democratic government to strike that balance," he added.

Many of the president's pronouncements also reflected Akbayan's policy agenda, most notably the full implementation of the Reproductive Health Law, the relocation of the urban poor, attention to the fisherfolk, and the passage of a Bangsamoro Basic Law in the context of a shift into a federal system of government, which can be the key to achieve lasting peace not only in Mindanao but in other conflict-affected areas as well.

As such, Akbayan remains steadfast in engaging the Duterte administration from the independent minority in the lower house.

"As human beings, there are things we easily forget and things that we simply don't. That's because they matter not to keep us in the past but to guide us in the future," Villarin said.