Palace slams Pangilinan's remarks
Malacanang on Saturday slammed Senator Francis Pangilinan by saying the gains of the Duterte administration '' far exceed'' that of the previous administration.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo, in a statement, said Pangilinan's claim of diversionary tactics with regard to remarks of President Rodrigo Duterte on senatorial candidate Mar Roxas and other opposition's candidates is "noxious nonsense".
"The achievements of the administration far exceed that of the administration of his idol, PNoy (former President Benigno Aquino III), where incompetence and trust issues among its top officials were prevalent, such as what were exhibited during the Mamasapano incident and the destructive storm Yolanda, an incontrovertible truth that is beyond forgetting," he added.
In an earlier statement, Liberal Party president Panglinan said the recent statement of Duterte on the 2015 Mamasapano incident is only "diversionary tactics" to turn the public's attention away from his failures and his candidates' track record.
Panelo said the Aquino administration "pale in comparison" with Duterte's war on drugs, on criminality, on corruption, and on terrorism as well as his Build Build Build infrastructure program.
"The Duterte Administration has achieved many firsts in its almost three years of governance owing to the President’s political will and disaffection about powerful private and proprietary interests of some," he said.
Panelo cited free tuition in state colleges and universities, free irrigation for farmers, universal health care for Filipinos, free medicine for indigent Filipinos and institutionalized free school feeding program for public school children, collection of billions of taxes from errant billionaire businessmen, salary increases of police, military and teachers, firing of an array of top government officials, passage of ease in doing business law, an executive order on freedom of information, establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Mindanao, veto of the P95.3 billion pork barrel, crushing the Marawi rebellion as some achievements of the administration.
"Res ipsa loquitur. The records speak for themselves," said Panelo.
"The achievements of this administration are inescapable to the Filipino masses resulting in stratospheric public satisfaction, approval and trust in favor of President Duterte and his administration," he added.
Panelo said, Pangilinan, just like the other critics and detractors of the president, is deaf and blind to the unprecedented survey numbers of Duterte.
"It is about time he and others in the opposition wake up from their self-destructive illusion lest they are swept away to oblivion by the horses of change galloping in the country," he said. Ella Dionisio/DMS
