Duterte-Cayetano tandem vows inclusive economy

CEBU, Philippines – Running under the “Tunay na Pagbabago” platform, vice presidential contender Senate Majority leader Alan Peter Cayetano promised to act to achieve an inclusive economy through regional development.

Cayetano’s runningmate, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, boldly declared that they will wage a 24/7 war against crime, corruption and illegal drugs.

“Utilizing the military and the police, and exercising the extraordinary powers of the president, we will half the country’s national crime rate and the number of bigtime drug lords operating in the country,” Duterte said in a statement.

Duterte said they will also increase the salaries of police personnel to P75,000 to P100,000 and re-impose the death penalty for drug trafficking and other heinous crimes.

Cayetano said his partnership with Duterte will ensure that all regions in the country, not just the National Capital Region, will benefit from economic development.

Cayetano said that if they are elected, they will allocate at least P800 billion of guaranteed funds for education, health, agriculture, livelihood, housing, tourism, infrastructure and transportation.

He also said that the Department of Tourism has to be transferred to Cebu.

“We will create better opportunities by creating more tourism estates in the province. We want to have more Mactans in the province, which is known for its successful industrial ventures and high-class tourism industry,” Cayetano said.

Cayetano said they also want to establish specialty hospitals in Visayas and Mindanao similar to the heart center, lung center, kidney center, orthopedic center, children’s hospital, and cancer research and treatment center, which are all based in Metro Manila.

“If Manila has a lung or heart center, I don’t see why Cebu can’t have the same specialty hospitals. There should be no second-class citizens with regard to health care,” Cayetano said.

The Duterte-Cayetano tandem also pledged to phase out contractualization, double the salaries of public school teachers, provide a living wage to workers, and give scholarship grants to the youth through the Iskolar ng Bayan program.

A nationwide tour, which kicked off in Cebu last Thursday, dubbed as “Hamon ng Pagbabago” will cover major cities and provinces in the country. —/LPM  (FREEMAN)