Palace on opposition's rant vs.

Build, Build, Build program, war on drugs

Shrill discordant voices have polluted the air from the usual suspects disparaging the
Administration's Build, Build, Build program and its war on drugs.

The government’s Build Build Build program has already gone out from the burner and many of
our grandiose infrastructure initiatives have commenced.

There have been delays in the commencement of the projects owing to the bureaucratic
rigmarole caused by the legal restraints and resort to judicial remedies by the losing bidders, to
which the President has expressed his exasperation and frustration.

The President is facing the said obstacles squarely and has started removing them in
accordance with the Constitution.

The government’s infrastructure and other capital outlays, according to the Department of
Budget and Management, jumped in the first 10 months of 2018 by 50.3% to P665.1 billion
from the P442.7 billion recorded in the same period in 2017.

The economic horizon appears to be bright per our economic managers. The economic
measures placed by them have curbed inflation and the prices in the market have gone down.

While detractors of this Administration consistently deliberate on how to mudsling the

President's achievements, we remain focused on how to improve the lives of our countrymen
through projects that will bring about genuine change for the nation.

Expectedly the opposition, especially those who wielded powers prior to the present ones, who
either by incompetence or sheer negligence failed to initiate any major infrastructure, has
denigrated the initiatives of PRRD to establish the foundation for the country's development
and growth.

A detained senator from the opposition has described the Build, Build, Build program,
"grossly inefficient " , among other nonsensical descriptives and false narratives.

As promised, we will ignore her ranting as her senses apparently have flown to the cuckoo's
nest. We will just watch her in amusement as she cantankerously pontificates like a headless
chicken running berserk.
The relentless drug war resulted in the surrender of more than a million drug addicts and
pushers, the arrest of hundreds of drug syndicate members and the neutralisation of less than
five thousand drug lords and their henchmen who opted to fight it out with the lawmen making
them rest peacefully, never again to destroy a generation of Filipinos and create dysfunctional
families.

The vigorous legal process effectively contained the drug addiction to about three million
Filipinos. Without the continuing battle against the destroyers of families, the number of our
drug enslaved countrymen could have reached a staggering ten million Filipinos which could
probably include the families and relatives of the detractors of the anti-illegal drug campaign.

The gradual destruction of the apparatus of the drug industry however also caused the violent
deaths of 162 policemen and serious injuries to more than 700 as the subjects of arrest and
buy-bust operations fought ferociously the policemen in mortal combat.

Such is a small price to pay to secure the safety of the nation from the scourge of prohibited
drugs.

Salvador S. Panelo
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel
& Presidential Spokesperson