ASEC. ABLAN: So ngayon, makakasama po natin over Skype si Secretary Martin Andanar – magandang gabi po Secretary Martin, live po tayo ngayon.

SEC. ANDANAR: Hello, good evening.

ASEC. ABLAN: How are you po?

SEC. ANDANAR: Oh, I’m good. Thanks for calling me up. Nandito ako ngayon sa Malacañang.

ASEC. ABLAN: Si Secretary Martin has been going around the different media outlets sir for discussing po the SONA of the President. Anything new you can share with us tonight, sir?

SEC. ANDANAR: Tonight, nandito ako ngayon sa Malacañang para sa blocking at rehearsal ni Presidente Duterte; at the same time, the editing of the script. Nandito na rin si Director Joyce Bernal para sa—for the rehearsal basically, and we are just waiting for the President.

Now by Monday which is July 22, 4 P.M., ‘yun po ‘yung magiging SONA ni Presidente Duterte. And let me also announce to the public that magkakaroon din po ng isang post-SONA event. Itong post-SONA na event ay gagawin sa July 23 dito po sa may Philippine Information Agency para kung mayroong mga issues or mayroong mga nabanggit halimbawa sa SONA na hindi masyadong klaro o kailangan pang ipaliwanag ay maipapaliwanag doon.

Nandoon si Secretary Sal Panelo at si Cabinet Secretary Nograles and other members of the Cabinet na kakailanganin para mas malinawan iyong mga hindi masyado malinaw na mababanggit sa State of the Nation Address.

ASEC. ABLAN: Maganda ‘yan Secretary Martin. I overheard your interview over at ABS with Linda and she was asking you ilang percent na po natapos iyong speech – at that time, 60%. And then early this morning sir, napakinggan ko din po kayo, sabi mo naman po, 95%. So by tonight sir, 100% na po ba ang speech ni PRRD?

SEC. ANDANAR: Well, I would put it at 98% kasi para mayroon pang room for corrections. You know the past three SONAs, talagang hands on si Presidente sa kaniyang speech at talagang marami siyang ine-edit at talagang binabasa niya line per line, every word, word for word binabasa niya and makikita mo talaga kung gaano siya kadetalyado pagdating sa talumpati. Now, I wouldn’t be surprised kung one-fourth of the speech tonight will be re-edited.

And I can only surmise kung gaano katagal ang speech, because during the first SONA in 2016 ay umabot ng almost 1 hour and 35 minutes; and then iyong second SONA in 2017, approximately 2 hours iyong naging haba ng speech; tapos noong 2018 ay 48 minutes. Because the President, during the SONA last year stuck of the speech and his ad libs were very, very, very minimal – I would say 2% only at the entire 48 minutes. So kung titingnan natin, I would surmise that it would be about 45 minutes to 1 hour and 20 minutes give or take, ‘pag nag-ad lib, mas mahaba.

ASEC. ABLAN: Sec. Martin, considering that we held three pre-SONAs—and by the way Sec. Martin, congratulations po sa PCOO team for conducting a very successful pre-SONA; the last one was in Davao. With so much topics Sec. discussed over the past three weeks, ano tingin ninyo po ang mapipili ni President Duterte na pag-uusapan sa darating na Lunes, sir?

SEC. ANDANAR: Sa palagay ko, kasi itong ika-apat na SONA, ito basically ang isa sa pinakaimportanteng SONA ni Presidente kasi this is basically the first SONA of the second half of this administration at ilalatag dito ang plano niya for the next three years. At the same time, ay kailangan din ma-report kahit papaano kung ano iyong mga nagawa for the last year and the last three years.

This is about legacy building. I call it the Duterte legacy. The Duterte legacy for the next three years will center around – number one, poverty alleviation, bringing down the poverty from 21% to 14% and bringing up the economy to upper middle class status.

Secondly, infrastructure – the Build, Build, Build with the 75 big ticket infrastructure projects para sa bansa natin including the railways, the subway, including the flyovers, including the Skyways, the byways, the bridges, kasama iyong railway sa Mindanao. Kailangan masimulan itong lahat ng Build, Build, Build projects within this term; whether matapos man siya o hindi, kailangan masimulan. And I understand that about 28 to 35 projects will be done within the term out of the 75.

ASEC. ABLAN: Wow!

SEC. ANDANAR: Yeah. And so thirdly, nandiyan din iyong peace and order because we have long been haunted by communism, the communist rebels sa kanayunan. And we would not be able to attain the progress that we dream of attaining kung mayroon pa ring mga komunista sa kanayunan. So therefore, highlight will be given to the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflicts.

So those are the three that will be the over-arching message for the next three years. Those are the three that we call the Duterte legacy, so mayroon kang soft legacy at mayroon ka ring hard legacy. At the end of the day, what is important is that President Duterte sets the bar of public service and sets the bar of infrastructure building, policy making and poverty alleviation so that the next president, the president that will be elected in 2022 will then have a bar to look up to and a bar to follow or even a bar to achieve—if not achieve, to surpass, iyon ang pinakaimportante.

Kaya this 2019 State of the Nation Address which will happen on Monday at 4 P.M. is very important for every Filipino; every Filipino, not only the 85% of the Filipinos who trusts the President; not only the 80% of the Filipinos who are satisfied with the performance of the President, but including those Filipinos who disagree with the President; the minority, the 3% and perhaps those who are undecided. This Monday will be the day that you will know the future and how the future will look like in the Philippines.

ASEC. ABLAN: Sec. Martin, baka mayroon naman mahanap diyan sa speech ni PRRD tungkol sa environment; kasama po natin si Usec Benny Antiporda po ng DENR.

SEC. ANDANAR: Oo, si Usec. Benny kausap ko lang siya kanina at salamat Benny sa oras na binigay mo sa programa namin ni Kris. And you know si Benny, puwede mo nang iwan ang program kay Benny kasi maraming kuwento ‘yan at marami ‘yang program sa DENR. Napakagaling ng tao na ‘yan, mula noong siya naging presidente ng NPC, naging may-ari ng Remate at kung ano pang mga pagmamay-ari ng taong ‘yan. Napakayaman niyan, hindi ko nga maintindihan kung ba’t nag-gobyerno ‘yan eh.

So Kris, thank you for this opportunity. I will be going inside the Rizal Room kasi parating na si Presidente.

Benny, thank you so much. To Kris, please take care of my friend – Usec. Benny Antiporda.

USEC. ANTIPORDA: Well thank you Mr. Secretary and idol kita. Alam mo namang mana lang ako sa’yo ‘no. Well, ‘yan ang number one na ‘ika nga ay nagbibigay ng advice sa akin, si Secretary Andanar.

So as of now kung mapapansin ninyo naman na bigla ‘no, sa administrasyong Duterte lamang na nabigyan ng pansin talaga iyong environment ‘no; not only on issues of mining, not only on issues of quarrying but pati iyong issues ng basura. Would you imagine: buti pa ang pangit mayroong ‘the last but not the least’ pero ‘yung basura ‘it’s always the last and the least’? But ang ating Presidente, binigyan ng pansin ‘yan even iyong tinatawag natin na coliform ‘no, binigyan niya ng pansin lahat ‘yan.

And you know, kakaibang pangulo mayroon tayo. And one of a kind of course bigyan na natin ng chance siya na talagang matulungan iyong taumbayan.  Now if we have our own ‘hugot’, eh baka naman puwedeng ipagpaubaya mo muna sa taumbayan for three years ‘no. Then after that, pagka natapos ‘to siguro it’s a better Philippines, then improve naman nila sarili nila – ‘yun ang atin dito.

But sa atin sa environment Mr. Secretary, isa lang maipagmamalaki ko sa inyo. We’ve been doing our best ‘no. Ako ho’y ipinagmamalaki ko kung ako’y tatawaging ‘Pambansang Basurero’ being the Undersecretary for Solid Waste Management and yet we’re coming up with the mitigation on the solid waste ‘no, wherein talagang once and for all, iyong from one to ten talaga, lahat sosolusyunan na natin. Hindi po gaya noong araw na from one, we go to five, then from five to ten; then ‘yung iba, kalimutan na natin.

Hindi po papayagan ng ating Pangulo iyong ganiyang sistema, kung kaya’t we’re coming up with the no-nonsense solution on solid waste, and of course no-nonsense solution on the mining industry kung kaya’t sa nakikita po natin eh ang atin pong Pangulo ay talagang natutuwa po when it comes to environment issues.

SEC. ANDANAR: ‘Yan, tingnan mo naman… si Usec. Benny, talagang he knows what he’s talking about. At alam mo Usec., noong sa pre-SONA natin sa Davao City, I would like to commend also your work kasi nakita ko ‘yung communications report ni Secretary Roy Cimatu at I must tell you this: this is just an anecdote na habang pinapalabas iyon ay panay ang kalabit sa akin ni Secretary Locsin ng DFA. Sabi niya, “Fantastic report – Fantastic report. You should do a 30-seconder report,” so ‘yun ang sinasabi parati sa akin.

And because of his prodding, ay kailangan natin mag-usap after the SONA dahil mayroon tayong malaking project na gagawin sa area ng communications para naman ma—at least ‘no, mag-collaborate tayo para gumawa ng mga 30-seconder na mga advertisements na ipapalabas natin sa lahat ng mga istasyon – at uunahin natin ang projects ng DENR dahil—

USEC. ANTIPORDA: Salamat po nang marami…

SEC. ANDANAR: Oo… Dahil kitang-kita natin, Boracay susmaryosep… papaano mo—who would imagine na magagawa natin iyon? Dahil sa political will ni Presidente Duterte at dahil sa operation ng DENR and of course, because of your communication skills Benny kaya bilib na bilib lahat ng tao sa DENR, lahat ng ito, teamwork ito eh. So congratulations doon sa ginawa ninyo pre-SONA.

USEC. ANTIPORDA: Thank you, sir. I think sir, we need to brag on this ‘no. First, it is the first time in the history that all of the secretaries, all of the—almost all of the Cabinet of the President, ano eh, iyong nag-volt in. And to the fact na pinaglaban nila iyong karapatan ng ating kalikasan na muling mabuhay ‘no; not only in Boracay, not only in Manila Bay, but around the country talagang makikita natin nagkakaisa lahat.

And even you can see the Canadian waste na naibalik natin, you can see how Secretary Locsin fought for it and ngayon lang po nangyari ito ano ho, hindi na ho siguro maganda ituro ko pa sa nakalipas na administrasyon, pero nagkakaroon dati ng miscommunication. But ngayon, nakita ho natin iyong teamwork talaga, lahat ho iisa lang ang tono, iisa ang direksiyon – for a better Philippines and for the future of the next generation – iyon po ‘yung nangyayari ngayon.

And yet makikita ninyo—again, I will brag on this. When we started cleaning up Boracay, people thought that the President and Secretary Roy Cimatu were crazy. Sabi nila, walang mangyayari diyan, but what happened? We succeeded; when it comes to the cesspool issue, 100% success po tayo.

Now compared to Manila Bay, Boracay was too small of a project now. Who knows, we might end up cleaning the whole country with our President and of course with our Secretary Roy Cimatu. And we might end up cleaning the whole world, and the people might ask us, “How did you do it in your country?” Iyon lang po ang maipagmamalaki natin. Basura lang po ito, waste lang po ito, dumi lang po ito… pero ito po ang papatay sa atin sakaling hindi po natin aksiyunan ito. Kaya we should be grateful for our President on acting on this.

SEC. ANDANAR: Iyon nga. Also I would like to commend the DENR kasi after noong nilinis ng DENR iyong Boracay, ay iyong bansang Thailand kung naalala ninyo ay nagdesisyon din na lilinisin nila iyong—isasara nila iyong isang isla nila doon na maraming turista. Tapos noong nagdesisyon din si Presidente muli na… sabi niya ibalik na ‘yan, ‘yung basura sa Canada; noong nakaraang ASEAN sa Thailand ay naging isa ito sa main resolutions noong Thailand na kailangan puksain na, tapusin na iyong problema ng basura pagdating sa dagat.

So makikita mo talaga na ang ating mahal na Pangulo ay mayroon talagang vision at maraming namamangha sa kaniyang vision. At dahil nga nade-deliver—hindi lang hanggang vision, hindi lang hanggang salita, kung hindi pati gawa eh… nagagawa ay sinusundan ng ibang mga bansa. Kaya iyong buong ASEAN ngayon iyong isa sa mga resolution is to stop garbage in the seas, in the waters para mapangalagaan iyong ating marine ecosystem, marine biology.

So anyway, I will have to go now. Kailangan ko nang pumasok sa loob. Thank you so much for the time.

USEC. ANTIPORDA: Sir, thank you for your trust and confidence to the DENR and rest assured that I will report every once in a while sa inyo sir about the communication issues in DENR also para ho mai-drumbeat din natin ito at malaman ng taumbayan gaano po katotoo ang administrasyong Duterte when it comes to environment issues.

SEC. ANDANAR: Sige. We’ll see you at the State of the Nation Address. Mabuhay ka, Benny.

USEC. ANTIPORDA: Maraming salamat po.

SEC. ANDANAR: Thank you, Kris. Good night.

ASEC. ABLAN: Thank you, Sec. Mart. Good night po. See you po on Monday. Alright, iyon po si Secretary Martin Andanar reporting from Malacañang po.

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Source: PCOO-NIB (News and Information Bureau-Data Processing Center)