PBBM pledges ‘safer, more prosperous' PH amid challenging times

| SONA 2022 Posted on 2022-07-22 01:53:19

PNA

MANILA – President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. has assumed the presidency amid difficult times, given the pressing national security challenges that continue to plague the country.

The pitfalls of lawlessness and armed conflict, territorial disputes, and economic and social threats are just some of the issues that need to be addressed by the Marcos government.

National Security Adviser (NSA) Clarita Carlos has made a clear stance that the new administration will pay attention to the needs of each Filipino to protect and safeguard the national interests.

Stressing that national security must be "reckoned on the individual level," Carlos said she intends to undertake a "human security" approach that focuses more on monitoring the daily lives and addressing the concerns of the Filipino people.

"The security that we're really concerned as an individual would be human security," Carlos, a political scientist, said in a June 10 interview with ABS-CBN News Channel. "Food security, security ng water sources mo (of your water sources), security of the air that you breathe, these are all individual security issues."

The United Nations Development Programme's 1994 Human Development Report introduced a new concept of human security, equating it "with people rather than territories [and] with development rather than arms." According to the report, threats to human security may be classified into economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community, and political security.

Marcos, in his inaugural speech delivered on June 30, vowed to transform the Philippines into an "agile and resilient" nation under his leadership.
He also promised to give Filipinos a better life in a "safer" and "more prosperous" nation by acting in haste and avoiding delays in making decisions.

"That is how agile and resilient Republics are made," Marcos said. "The sooner we start, the surer and quicker the prospect of achieving our future. These are troubling times. What is happening to others can happen to us, but it will not. We see what's happening."

Job creation, Carlos said, is among the top priorities of the Marcos administration in its first 100 days to ensure human security.

"Create the jobs which are lost during the two-year [coronavirus disease 2019 or Covid-19] pandemic. Job creation is a national security," she said.

Communists as 'participants in change'

Apart from creating more jobs amid the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic, Carlos said it is also important to address inequalities to end the insurgency problem in the country.

The current administration would continue the local peace engagements with communist rebels, Carlos, who also concurrently serves as the vice chairperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), said.

She also wanted the communist insurgents to be "participants in change."

Writer :

Link :