A safe and sound Philippines for all

I WILL continue with my “wish list,” albeit from admittedly a foreigner’s but neighbor’s point of view, for the new Duterte administration. The revival of the once-great Filipino economy is undoubtedly the top priority for the new President, but a close second, and I suspect this is, indeed, something very close to the President’s heart, is safety and security.

In my humble opinion, as far as the Philippines goes, safety and security encompasses at least three dimensions. The first is domestic safety, or more precisely, a robust disaster mitigation system. My home state of Sabah is blessed with both the alluring nickname and the lucky fate of “the land below the wind.” What this means, as I was taught since young, is that the annual arrays of tropical typhoons would sweep across the Philippine islands, but barely brush the northern tip of Sabah, hence, sparing us Sabahans from tremendous devastations of both lives and properties brought about by the torrential storms and ensuing floods. The same happy circumstance, alas, could not be said about many of our Filipino neighbors.