THE Philippines declined after 100 days under the incumbent administration and urged President Rodrigo Duterte to address the issues of poverty, terrorism, climate change, and basic services, former President Fidel V. Ramos said Monday.
“After 100 days, we are declining as a Philippine team. The poor, the veterans, the youth, persons with disabilities are not getting any help,” Ramos said at the Samahang Plaridel news forum at the Manila Hotel.
Ramos said only law enforcers are the only ones seeing improvement in their lives because of the government’s war against drugs “but that is only one part of our society.”
One of the basic services that is being neglected is mass transportation. That is also true of the concerns of workers, women, farmers, academe, veterans and several others.
Even in meetings of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council, Ramos said the Cabinet only allows about two minutes for each of these other items.
“Hopefully this would be reviewed. Mr. President with due respect to you, I hope you’ll not get angry,” Ramos said.
“[The country is declining] because we are losing friends by telling them that we don’t like them anymore. And sometimes by using bad words,” the former leader said.
“It’s okay to court new friends. By all means, let’s romance them. But do not discard or eliminate our trusted friends because they will never come back again,” he said. “No world will exist unless there is international cooperation. So what we need is an interdependent foreign policy,” said Ramos.
“Unilateralism is something deep. That is being alone without any companion,” said Ramos, adding that the Philippines needs more allies to address serious problems.
“For some people now who are smart alecks, they say this is our independent foreign policy. Our enemy now is global warming, hunger, no potable water, drying up of watersheds, no natural electric power, no space for a comfortable family life because the population is growing,” he added.