Let’s make a time capsule. Let’s list the promises made by the candidates at the last 2016 presidential debate held in Pangasinan. When the 16th president of the Republic of the Philippines is announced, we’ll tick off, one by one, the programs they are able to push through year on year; and at the end of their term in 2022, let’s see which of the promises did they fail to deliver. Maybe someone will actually keep tabs of everything they’ve been promising so far, or maybe someone will finally have the guts to jump in front of the train when they fail to to honor their word.
And just for fun, let’s make a prediction which of these promises will stay promises and which will we actually see implemented.
Jejomar Binay
- Decent housing for every family
- Health benefits for everyone
- Free medicine and free hospitalization for the poor
- All schools will have computers
- Free educational materials for students
- Everyone will be able to eat at least three times each day
- Sit down with China to talk about the West Philippine sea
- Free education to the kids of Mang Carlo (and hopefully to kids of other fisherfolk)
- Alternative livelihood for fishermen
- Split the DOTC into two: create a Department of Transportation and a Department of Communication
- Ensure all employees are protected and compensated according to the law
- Eliminate income tax
- Make working abroad not a necessity
- Remodernize agriculture by eliminating irrigation fee, revisiting insurance, and encouraging high yielding crops
- Take back the Marcos wealth (if there’s any left)
- Disband private armed groups
- Transfer Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to house arrest
- Install health stations in each barangay complete with facilities and health workers
- Lift poverty in Mindanao to lift the conflict
Rodrigo Duterte
- Sweep the country of drugs in 6 months
- Copy the plans of the other presidentiables
- Ride a jet ski to the nearest boundary in Spratly Islands, put down the Filipino flag to claim the territory, and say, “This is ours and do what you want with me”
- Will not stake the lives of Filipino soldiers over the territorial dispute on the West Philippine Sea
- Build new railways
- Improve mass transit
- Call the Speaker of the House and the Senate President to pass the bill to eradicate contractualization completely in the first week of his administration
- Create a department that will process all OFW needs
- Create a bank for OFW remittances
- Free hospitalization, free legal aid, and free ticket back to the Philippines for maltreated OFWs
- Stop corruption in the government
- Transfer President Marcos to the Libingan Ng Mga Bayani
- Place one doctor per barangay
- Commit the PAGCOR funds for the payment of medical and hospital expenses of Filipinos who can’t afford to pay
- Give Mindanao the Bangsamoro Basic Law
- Talk to the people of Mindanao for peace, especially with the terrorists and the NPA
Grace Poe
- Increase the members of the Coast Guard
- Give radios to all fishermen
- Strict enforcement of traffic rules
- Finish existing projects like the South Luzon Skyway and North Luzon Connector Road
- Finish MRT7 project
- Finish LRT extension project
- Create a subway system
- Appoint a Traffic Terminator
- Create MRT systems in Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, and other parts of the Philippines
- Reward drivers who are following traffic rules
- Eradicate contractualization completely
- Lower corporate tax
- Create a 24-hour hotline for the OFWs
- Create a government department that will expedite renewal processes for OFWs and take care of their family’s healthcare needs
- Eradicate terminal fees for OFWs
- Stop the opening of balikbayan boxes
- Ensure zero hospital billing for those who cannot pay for hospital fees
- P1 billion for ever provincial hospital
- Build a provincial hospital in Maguindanao
- Improve infrastructure in Mindano
- Conduct bilateral talks to eradicate terrorists
- Free lunch in public elementary schools
Mar Roxas
- 10 million jobs will be created by 2022
- Millions will be added to the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program
- Scholarships for those who cannot afford college education
- Weather-based insurance for fishermen and farmers
- Automatic 4Ps membership and PhilHealth for fishermen, and education for their kids
- 144 new MRT trains by the end of the first year
- LRT 2 extension finished by 2017
- Finish LRT 1 extension
- Overhaul of operator franchises
- Bring the Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Works and Highways back together
- File memorandums and bills to eradicate contractualization
- Lower electricity prices
- Increase incentives of eco-zones
- Increase infrastructures
- Make working abroad not a necessity
- Make sure overseas offices and embassies are always open, even on weekends
- Remove scanners at the entrance of NAIA
- Install health stations in each barangay complete with facilities and health workers
- Give allowances to barangay health workers
- Increase coverage of PhilHealth
- Conduct peace talks with all sectors of the community in Mindanao, including the MILF
- Increase infrastructures in Mindanao
- Move the BBL forward
Miriam Defensor-Santiago
- Make credit available to poor farmers
- Bigger budgets, better training, and better equipment for police and military
- Establish a new alternative capital city somewhere near Clark area which will be a new government center, IT park, and educational center
- Command the Coast Guard to bomb China
- Talk with China and say, “We have world public opinion behind us”
- Build a new railway system connecting Manila to the interconnected provinces like Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna; and another railway system connecting Manila to Sorsogon
- Build a new modern airport
- Appeal very strongly for discipline among drivers
- Compel LTO to be stricter with driver licensing
- Create infrastructures to create millions of jobs
- Improve manufacturing to generate more jobs
- Pay attention to farm-to-market roads, irrigation, water impounding facilities, and post-harvest facilities
- Make working abroad not a necessity
- Create a hotline to the DOLE or the OWWA for OFW assistance
- Establish an ASEAN Economic Community where all the 10 ASEAN member countries will be members
- Transfer Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to house arrest
- PhilHealth coverage for everyone
- Strengthen the Conditional Cash Transfer Program
- Strict monitoring of medicine supplies and vaccine stocks in barangay health centers
- Stop the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office from demanding a letter of recommendation from a politician before they attend to the the request for funding
- Stop privatization of hospitals because it drives the cost of medicines upward
- Dismantle the private armies
- Stop the intumescent conflict in Mindanao by adapting their customary or traditional law into the government’s justice system
