In his most presidential stance yet, President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday peppered his third State of the Nation Address (SoNA) with assurances of his earlier policies and projects to make up for Congress’s failure to enact the OLBARMM.

The Organic Law on the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, which should have been the highlight of President Duterte’s SoNA, was shoved by the wayside by an attempted power grab by forces who switched allegiance to the once discredited Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Arroyo mustered enough numbers to attempt to claim the House leadership from Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez but her power grab move only derailed the OLBARMM’s passage.

The Chief Executive’s speech lasted just 47 minutes and was applauded 31 times by the audience who had earlier saw Congress in its worse when Arroyo’s crew set the tone for a leadership change despite the House session postponed earlier after it failed to pass the OLBARMM for the President’s signature.

The SoNA was delayed by more than an hour and the President stuck to reading the speech from a teleprompter, digressing just twice to give his personal inputs on the issues of the Bangsamoro Basic Law and labor “contractualization.”

He was given a standing ovation at the end of his speech, which was not marked with any cuss word that had been used by his critics to taint his gains, inputs and policies in his past speeches.

Duterte stood firm on the implementation of the tax reform law despite the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) being unpopular.

“Some have incorrectly blamed our efforts toward a fairer tax system for all the price increases in the past months and some irresponsibly suggested to stop the TRAIN’s implementation. We cannot and should not. We need this for sustainable growth that leaves no Filipino left behind,” Mr. Duterte said.

The President said that with the passage and implementation of the TRAIN, beneficiaries of the government’s unconditional cash transfers increased from four million to six million this year.

The President also stressed his strong stance against calls to stop his drive against illegal drugs.

“The illegal drugs war will not be sidelined. Instead, it will be as relentless and chilling, if you will, as on the day it began,” Mr. Duterte said. “Your concern is human rights, mine is human lives. The lives of our youth are being wasted and families are destroyed and all because of the chemicals called shabu, cocaine, cannabis and heroine.”

It was a revelation that the President said China is a partner of the Philippines in the campaign to curb the manufacture and distribution of illegal drugs.

“Our re-energized relations with China has also led to an unprecedented level of cooperation between our nations on the war against transnational crimes,” Mr. Duterte said.

“Our shared intelligence led to the discovery and dismantling of the clandestine shabu laboratories and the arrest of Chinese chemists [connected] with the Dragon organization called the Wu Syndicate,” he added.

He also stressed to keep his relentless campaign against corruption, saying that while he values friendship, he will not hesitate to sack any member of his administration to be linked to corruption.

Previously, the President had asked Interior and Local Government Secretary Ismael Sueno and National Irrigation Administration Administrator Peter Lavina to resign after they were accused of corrupt practices in office.

He warned government agencies to stop red tape and start being customer-friendly.

“I value friendship, make no mistake about it. But it has its limits,” said Mr. Duterte.

Also, the Commander in Chief vowed not to waiver on defending the country’s territory but cited the much-improved relationship between Manila and Beijing, tainted only by the standoff at Panatag Shoal off Zambales in 2012.

“Our improved relationship with China, however, does not mean that we will waver in our commitment to defend our interests in the West Philippine Sea,” said the President, soliciting applause from the audience.

“This is why we engage China through bilateral and multilateral platforms such as the ASEAN-China and the Philippines-China Bilateral Consultation Mechanism,” he added.

The President said that such engagement with China yielded positive results.

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