Monday 23 / June / 2025
Muscat: The sacrifice and selflessness of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) was recognised by the Philippines' President Rodrigo Duterte during his recent State of the Union Address.
On Monday, Duterte acknowledged the millions of OFWs for their sacrifices and great contributions to the economy.
“We admire our Filipino migrant workers for their selflessness and courage in enduring the hardships of living away from home to provide for their families,” he said.
During Duterte's speech, his third since taking office, he also called on the Congress of the Philippines to immediately pass a bill on Universal Health Care, which would provide all-inclusive health coverage to all Filipinos.
Responding to his critics, Duterte reaffirmed his commitment to a controversial drug war, which has resulted in the deaths of thousands of people.
“Let me begin by putting it bluntly: the war against illegal drugs is far from over. Where before, the war resulted in the seizure of illegal drugs worth millions of pesos, today, they run [into] billions in peso value,” he said at the House of Representatives.
Duterte added that he could only “shudder” at the harm that illegal drugs have caused Filipinos throughout the country, noting that this was the very reason why the drug war will not be set aside.
“Instead, it will be as relentless and chilling, if you will, as on the day it began,” he said.
“If you think that I can be dissuaded from continuing this fight because of [your] demonstrations, your protests, which I find, by the way, misdirected, then you got it all wrong."
“Your concern is human rights, mine is human lives. You worry about the present; I am concerned [about] both the present and the future. I worry about the future because I know what crimes can do to the youth of this country. If not stopped, crimes can make human cesspools of succeeding generations. I will not allow it to happen. Not during my term,” Duterte said.
