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Protesters of the second State of the Nation  Address (SONA) were caught  off guarded when suddenly President Duterte took their stage and talked with them as he  asked for mutual respect.

After his two-hour ten-minute (2:10) SONA Duterte  went  to see the protesters mostly composed of militant leaders and their allied organizations.

He told the group to ask their representative in government (referring to the cabinet  secretaries who are allied with the militant groups) what has been done by his administration for the last twelve months instead of heckling him.

Duterte was welcomed onstage by the protesters with boos and chants of “martial law, never again.”

But Duterte warned them should they persist in heckling and lambasting him, it would be “the last time I will talk to you.”

“My relationship with the left is still okay. Don’t destroy it because everyone will be affected. Let’s keep the line open,” he said. “If we don’t give each other respect, if that’s what you want, I can give it to you. I am not intimidated by shouts. You can shout till you lose your voices.”

It was first time in the record of a SONA when a president talked with his protesters.

“Ask them what I have been doing. You are rushing me… You should give me time. I still have five years but I’m telling all of you, I will deliver. I will deliver,” Mr. Duterte said.

The militants kept on chanting anti-fascist and anti-imperialist lines  as Duterte spoke to them.

Then, Duterte told the group “Kung wala tayong respetuhan, kung ayaw ninyo, ibibigay ko sa inyo.  So kalimutan ninyo ako, so mag-demonstrate kayo, hindi ako na-i-intimidate, pag wala tayong respetuhan, kung wala kayong respeto bahala kayo” then he left the group.

(If we don’t respect each other, if you don’t want, I will give it to you. So, better forget me. So, you demonstrate, I am not intimindated, if we don’t respect each other, if you don;t respect, it is up to you)

Duterte even reminded the protesters he was once one of them during his teenage life.

The president took time in explaining the program of his government on land reform, poverty alleviation and labor issues.

Militant BAYAN leader in a statement posted on hsi facebook wall said “What the President did, speaking at the Bayan rally after his SONA (on his own initiative), was unprecedented. That much is true. However, it would have been more meaningful if he made clear commitments on the basic issues of the people. The audience’s strong negative reaction and feeling of dismay come from the President’s lack of positive responses to the issues they posed, including the peace talks, political prisoners, contractualization, land reform and so on.”

Reyes added “He made no commitment to resume peace talks and instead repeatedly harped on a fictional “ambush” against him. When asked about land reform and contractualization, he pointed to his cabinet secretaries. When asked about releasing political prisoners, he said the military will object. Those responses did not get him adherents at the rally for sure. “The people, not the military, are your bosses,” the crowd reacted.” EDITHA CADUAYA/Newsline

BY ROGER M. BALANZA

President Rodrigo Duterte dared militants to kill him, as he spoke to the protesters, mostly from leftist organizations,  on a makeshift stage. minutes after delivering his State of the Nation Address (SONA)  on  Monday, July 24.

Gusto ninyo akong patayin? Sige. Sino ang may granada dyan? Sige, paputukin mo na dito (You want to kill me? Okay. Who has the grenade? You explode it here), said a fuming Duterte, who was met with jeers from the large crowd as he climbed up the stage outside of the Batasan.

Earlier in his speech, President Duterte closed the door for the resumption of talks with communist rebels and ordered state forces to gear up for a possible all-out war with the New People’s Army (NPA).

The President slammed the National Democratic Front (NDF) and its armed wing, the NPA, for insincerity in dealing with the government.

“I used to be friends with the NDF. Times have changed because God placed me here. Bully daw ako. Talagang bully ako (I am really a bully) especially to the enemies of the state,” Duterte said.

The President cited the spate of deadly attacks by the NPAs on policemen, particularly on the Presidential Security Group in Arakan, North Cotabato as evidence of the communist rebels hypocrisy.

The President, however, was not in the vehicle at that time.

“Kayong mga Left (To the Left), I will not talk to you. Why should I?” Duterte told a joint session of Congress in a lengthy speech.

The President reiterated this during a press briefing after the SONA.

He said the Communists, uncertain of their policies, still have the gall to accuse him of being a bully.

“I said I am a bully to the enemies of the state. So if you don’t want me, to talk to me, I (also) do not want to talk to you and I do not want you. So ayaw ninyong makipag-usap, mas lalo na ako (If you don’t want to talk, much more am I),” Duterte told reporters.

The President expressed disdain to the NPAs for engaging in dirty tactics and accused them of showing no mercy to government forces called upon to render assistance. He was referring to a July 21 incident in Guihulngan City, Negros Oriental wherein six police officers, including the city police chief, were killed in an ambush while responding to also to an ambush distress call.

“It is all rues and excuse just to kill them. Kawawa ‘yung mga tao na ‘yan (I pity them) because they went to their deaths with a sense of purpose and that was to respond to an emergency because they were told that,” the President said.

The President, who in his first SONA called on the NDF to end decades of fighting through peace talks, said that he is now willing to continue the war against the communist rebels for another 50 years and reciprocate their ruthlessness in like manner.

“So kung ganon, wala ring patawaran tayo. So I am ordering the military and the police, walang patawaran kasi hindi naman tayo pinapatawad (No mercy because they do not show mercy),” Duterte said.

“So this time, you do it to me, do it to my police and to my Army, we will do it to you. So no more talks. They cannot have their cake and eat it too,” Duterte said.

As a counter-measure to the dual threats now posed by both the communist rebels and Islamic militants, the President said that government would start to call for a mobilization of additional 35,000 fighting men.

“I want the Army added by about 20,000 fighting men. Then I will add about another 10- to 15-thousand policemen. But I want them SAF (Special Action Force). And I will also start to re-arm,” he said.

“I really do not know how many will sprout up but we have the ISIS and the NPA. I will build a credible Armed Forces that can fight at all fronts everywhere,” Duterte said. (PNA)#DuterteSONA2017