Five (5) Major Accomplishments of Duterte’s Presidency:

1. Significant or a 6.8 percentage-point reduction in poverty from 23.5 percent of the

population when Duterte began his presidency to 16.7 percent by the end of 2019—equivalent to
6.1 million Filipinos rescued from poverty, defined as earning just $2 a day, thanks to three
major tax reforms – the Rice Tariffication Law (which removed rice monopolies and allowed
importations that brought down rice prices; rice is 15 percent of the consumer basket); the
TRAIN or Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law of January 2018 (which exempted
from hefty income taxes those earning no more than P250,000 a year, the bulk of low income
earners, thus freeing billions for consumption or savings); and the Universal Health Care Act, a
socialist act copied by countries like Thailand but which is being undermined by massive
corruption at the state health insurance agency, PhilHealth.

2. The campaign against illegal drugs.

Hugely popular, with almost two of every three
Filipinos believing the number of drug users in
their area has been reduced since Duterte came to
power in 2016, Tokhang (a slang meaning
knocking at your doors in search of criminals) has
resulted in some 7,000 drug lords and addicts
eliminated from the face of the earth in just two
years (twice the number the late Ferdinand
Marcos was accused of killing in 20 years of
strongman rule; human rights watchers insist
Duterte killed more than 27,000 but give no
proof).
 Crime likewise came down. The campaign invested Duterte with the gravitas of a
strongman, a leader who can get things done by the sheer power of his will – and that of his
police and armed forces.

3. Sanctioning of abusive utilities.

The President went hammer and tongs
against the utilities like water and telco.
He sought to scrap the long-term contracts,
secured in 1997, of the two major water
concessionaires serving 16 million
customers in the Metro Manila and nearby
provinces—the Maynilad Water of the First
Pacific Ltd group of Antoni Salim of
Indonesia and Filipino CEO Manuel V.
Pangilinan, and the Manila Water Co. of the
old-time Ayala family and the Singapore
government—unless they accept new
contract with better terms to the Philippine
government. Stung, the two water
companies gave up P11 billion in arbitral awards –refund from unapproved rate increases.
Ayala’s Manila Water sold 25 percent of its equity to ports tycoon Enrique Razon for P10 billion
with the latter eventually taking control of the utility.

4. Breakup of some
oligarchies. The closure on May 5,
2020 of broadcast behemoth ABS-CBN
Corp. of the old Lopez oligarchy is not a
retribution against a pesky media
institution nor intended to intimidate if
not silence critics in media. It is, if you
believe government, an attempt to break
up oligarchies. The Lopezes are the
original Philippine oligarchy, with their
power and influence dating back to the
1800s, or seven generations. The House
of Representatives, where radio-tv
franchises originate, rejected on July 9,
2020, nine bills seeking to renew for
another 25 years, the franchise of ABS-
CBN, which expired on May 4, 2020. In one year, listed ABS-CBN’s market value dropped
from P13.54 billion in May 2019 to almost nothing by today. The company had to lay off nearly
all of its 11,000 workers. Four days after the rejection, Duterted addressed troops in battle-weary
Jolo, Sulu. The President enthused in Pilipino and English: “I can die, fall from a plane. I am
very happy. You know why? Without declaring martial law, I dismantled the oligarchy that
controlled the economy of the Filipino people.”

“The rich,” he said, “milk the government and the people. Without declaring martial law,
I destroyed the people who strangle our economy and do not pay (taxes). They take advantage of
their political power.”

The emphasis on “without declaring martial law” is meant to convey that Duterte was
more powerful (or probably smarter) than the late Ferdinand Marcos who had to declare martial
law in 1972 and proceeded to breakup the various oligarchic families starting with the Lopezes
whose Abs-CBN radio-tv network was seized as part of the strongman’s effort to reform society.
In separate speeches, Duterte had also referred to the Ayala family, founder of the Philippines’
oldest commercial house, in 1834, and the PLDT Group’s Pangilinan, also as oligarchs, and
targeted their utility businesses.

5. Savvy fiscal management.

Under Duterte, the Philippines achieved
its highest ever credit rating—BBB+ in
April 2020, despite COVID-19. In June
2020, Japan Credit Rating Agency even
upgraded the Philippine rating to A-, with
a stable outlook.Japan’s top debt watcher,
JCR is smaller than the top three credit
rating agencies Fitch Ratings, Moody’s
Investors Service, and S&P Global
Ratings. But the JCR upgrade came at a
time when the Philippines was deep in the
deepest recession in its history as result of the world’s longest and most severe lockdown that
shut down the economy for seven months, eviscerating 73 percent of its GDP, closing 70 percent
of businesses, laying off some 20 million workers, and impoverishing half of the population in
an instant.