SONA WATCH. Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson virtually attends the sixth and final State of the Nation Address of President Rodrigo Duterte from the Provincial Capitol in Bacolod City on Monday (July 26, 2021). Amid the Covid-19 crisis, Lacson said Duterte’s call for rebound and recovery programs as well as retooling and upscaling of workers for better job opportunities is “decisively pivotal”. (Photo courtesy of PIO Negros Occidental)
BACOLOD CITY – Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson said on Tuesday that President Rodrigo Duterte made a “decisively pivotal” move in calling for rebound and recovery programs as well as retooling and upscaling of workers as part of the government’s coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) response.
Lacson pointed this out as Duterte asked the 18th Congress during his final State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday to pass several priority bills, some of which aimed at helping the country recover and build resilience from crises such as the prevailing coronavirus pandemic.
“For while we are in the midst of battling the Covid-19 virus, we also need to make provisions for the recovery of our economy,” the governor said in a statement.
In his SONA, the President once again pushed for the passage of three measures to boost the country's economic recovery -- the proposed amendments to the Public Service Act, Foreign Investments Act, and Retail Trade Liberalization Act -- as well as the bill institutionalizing e-Governance to cope with the transition to the new normal and the challenges posed by the Covid-19 threat.
“I am also with the President in his plan to pursue the creation of the Center for Disease Prevention and Control, and the Virology and Vaccine Institute of the Philippines,” Lacson said.
By endorsing this, Duterte hoped to pursue the creation of public entities dedicated to managing emerging and re-emerging diseases, adding that the Philippine Virology Institute would serve as the premier research and development institution in the field of virology, encompassing all areas in viruses and viral diseases in humans, plants, and animals.
“I join the President in his earnest plea for every Filipino to get vaccinated. At this point, getting vaccinated has gone beyond the question of choice, it has now become our moral obligation,” Lacson said.
He also noted that while the President’s abhorrence of lawlessness, criminality, corruption, and illegal drugs was apparent, he was pleased with the gains of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, which is the “whole-of-nation approach in defeating the local communist terrorist group and obtaining sustainable and inclusive peace throughout the Philippines”.
Duterte called for the passage of bills to "boost the morale and capabilities of the Armed Forces and Philippine National Police to further strengthen the institution,” he said.
Also a “welcome development”, Lacson said, is the President’s call for the creation of a department dedicated to the welfare and concerns of migrant workers and overseas Filipino workers.
In his assessment, the governor said Duterte’s sixth and last SONA “revealed his hopes upon his assumption of office, the achievements of his administration, the challenges during his term, and how the pandemic forced him to respond with urgency to the unprecedented events as they unfold”. (PNA)
