Soft heart SAP Bong Go and President Rodrigo Duterte console a female soldier injured in a road accident while on duty in Cagayan de Oro City. PresidenTIAL PHOTO

“During the 2016 campaign, Duterte pledged to make it safer for all Filipinos, especially women, to walk the streets without fear of being preyed upon by criminals.”

“Kuya” Bong Go, Special Assistant to President Rodrigo Duterte, yesterday called on mothers, daughters, sisters and all Filipino women to continue “empowering” themselves to empower the nation.

“Keep up your role because you can do big things for your community,” Go told reporters, referring to women from all walks of life who contribute to nation-building.

Go issued the statement during the Laguna Women’s Brigade Summit and Serbisyong Tama Kababaihan Officer’s Assembly in Binan, Laguna.

“The President has high respect for women. When he was still mayor, the President pushed many measures for women’s welfare and protection,” Go said.

Go assured his audience the Duterte administration is fully committed to promoting gender equality as the President, even as mayor of Davao City, pushed women-centered advocacies.

“This may maintain the country’s spot as one of the 10 countries in the world when it comes to gender equality,” Go said, referring to the government’s implementation of the Magna Carta for Women.

Go said that President Duterte’s three-pronged campaign against illegal drugs, corruption and criminality protect all Filipinos, especially women and children picked upon as “easy targets” by criminals.

At a media forum at De La Salle Univesity Manila during the 2016 campaign, Duterte pledged to make it safer for all Filipinos, especially women, to walk the streets without fear of being preyed upon by criminals.

Go said the President’s campaign against “tambays” or loiterers is in line with that pledge to curb the crimes committed on the streets.

“If they are not doing any illegal activities, they have nothing to fear. The police are just doing their job,” Go said.

“As long as human rights are not violated, let’s support our police,” he added.

As Davao City mayor, Duterte championed pro-women reproductive health programs and caused the creation of Violence Against Women help desks – described as “model” initiatives in local government by the Philippine Commission on Women.

During the campaign period, then PDP spokesperson Paola Alvarez said Duterte may be the only mayor of any city or municipality in the Philippines to assign a battery of lawyers to handle all the legal concerns of abused and battered women in Davao City.

She also cited Duterte’s health programs for pregnant women and their babies, as well as the Child-Minding Centers he put up to take care of children while their mothers are at work.