STATEMENT OF SENATOR JOEL VILLANUEVA ON
PRESIDENT RODRIGO DUTERTE'S SONA

I think the bottomline of President Rodrigo Duterte's first State of the Nation Address (SONA) is job creation: genuine peace, unilateral ceasefire, clean and corruption-free government can lead to investments, investments can lead to jobs; decent and long-term employment can uplift the dignity of our people.

I believe that this new government will be a people-centered government which is exactly the heart of our legislative agenda in the senate - reform and strengthen our institutions to empower our people.

I also welcome President's unilateral declaration of a ceasefire. I hope & pray that it will lead to lasting peace.

I totally admire the mandatory financial education among our overseas filipino workers, consistent with a bill we are championing. We have the same concern, we want to help our OFWs manage their funds so that they can be entrepreneurs, come home, and help create jobs in the country so that families do not have to leave and work abroad.

Lastly, we now have to buckle down to work and figure out how we will operationalize the President's vision of federalism.