(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte stressed that he is after the “peace of the living,” and not the peace of the dead, during his second State of the Nation Address before Congress on Monday, July 24, 2017 as he reiterated his support for government forces whom he described as the country’s “silent heroes.”
“Today, a multitude of problems confront us,” he said as he observed that one problem after another crops up for the country.
“But we will not be disheartened… we will not be cowed,” he said.
“It is not the peace of the dead, but the peace of the living that we seek,” the President stressed.
Duterte said that the “Red insurgency” had been with there for decades, while the Moro rebellion had been there for centuries.
“But peace eludes us still,” the President observed.
“Sometimes, I’m almost tempted to conclude that peace might not be able to come during our lifetime,” he said during the first part of his second SONA that started at around 4:25 p.m.