Office of Senator
Alan Peter S. Cayetano
Rm. 602 GSIS Complex Senate of the Philippines Roxas Blvd Pasay City
PRESS RELEASE
03 February 2017
“Come to the Philippines and please look at us from a different perspective.”
This was the message of Senator Alan Peter Cayetano to the delegates of the National Prayer Breakfast being held in the United States, consisting of leaders from different religious and business groups across the globe.
“We invite you to come to the Philippines and see for yourselves that the Philippines is not about hatred and violence as being shown in the international media."
He encouraged the foreign leaders to come and visit the country to discover for themselves the natural beauty of the country, and get to know Filipinos who are loving, kind and hospitable.
Cayetano also took the opportunity to discuss to the international community his insights on the Philippine war on drugs.
“The war on drugs is not a war to kill criminals,” Cayetano clarified.
He explained that the anti-drug campaign is not a war against life but a war to fight for the lives of all Filipinos.
Cayetano noted that the Philippine government and even President Duterte have acknowledged that there are law enforcers who abuse their power, but he added that this should not be a reason to stop the entire drug campaign in general.
He said, “President Duterte is being potrayed in the international community as a 'violent' man. But a 'violent' man does not want peace for anyone."
He added that, in contrast, "Our President is doing everything to make the peace talks successful, achieve lasting peace, and win the war against illegal drugs,” the Senator added.
Cayetano compared the rogue cops in the law enforcement agencies like the PNP to the corrupt personnel in tax agencies.
“When tax collecting agencies become rigged with corruption, we did not tell them to stop collecting taxes, but we cleansed the agencies,” he said.
Cayetano explained that there may be weaknesses in the systems and opportunities for corruption and abuse but the important thing is that the cleansing is on-going.
Finally, he urged the participants in the National Prayer Breakfast to pray for the Filipino leaders to gain wisdom and fear of the Lord as the Philippines continues to address the problem of illegal drugs. #
