NPC MONITOR Special Edition: SONA 2021 – National Police College

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MESSAGE of President Ricardo De Leon

(On Pres. Duterte’s 6th SONA)

For the last time, our President Rodrigo Roa Duterte had his State of the Nation address and reported to our people as he looked back at his last five years in office. The SONA is focused on simple, brief yet clear report on country’s development, social and infrastructure programs, peace and security, and foreign policy. As one of the integral training institutions of the Department of Interior and Local Government, the Philippine Public Safety College is one with our President and administration from the very beginning and has accomplished meaningful goals and objectives in accordance with his vision and priorities. We are grateful enough that the administration made public safety and security as one of its main priorities, highlighting its great and crucial role towards development and progress.

The administration’s initiatives to combat all forms of threats and criminalities in order to make our nation safe and secured has been very evident and apparent since the very beginning. As he reported his accomplishments to the nation, we’ve witnessed sufficient measures achieved and are continuously being implemented and attained. The drug war initiatives, the Marawi Rehabilitation, our national interest and international cooperation and the National Task force on Ending Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) and more. In terms of war on drugs, our unyielding campaign led to the surrender of millions of drug dependents and neutralization, capture, and prosecution of thousands of drug personalities. Our victory in Marawi is also a testament to how the Filipinos’ patriotism is far stronger. Rebuilding a better Marawi remains, today, still not completed. Addressing the Task Force Bangon Marawi, he mentioned that we need to race against time and you have to finish the necessary work to rehabilitate the war-torn city and bring its families back home. Furthermore, with the creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), we have made great strides in addressing the root causes of this conflict. We have worked towards the sustainable rehabilitation of communities where communists used to operate.

While the President reported a lot of accomplishments and significant milestones in the past years, there remains significant challenges that we still need to face. We in the government never stop from doing what we are ought to do. As we live in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world, and with the emergence of new threats and challenges to public security and safety, the question is how ready and capacitated are we to face them? Are we resilient enough to overcome these challenges? Can we achieve greater things than what we have achieved so far? The answer is, YES WE CAN! It is not impossible for us to achieve what we want. But only if we stop being contented with where we are and strive more to achieve greater things. Just recently, the Philippines flag soars high as one of our delegates in the Tokyo Olympics Hidilyn Diaz bagged our first ever gold medal, the very first in centuries. This is a historical and remarkable achievement and we should be proud that one of our people, the First Filipino to achieve such recognition, is now being recognized around the world. This only means that we can achieve many and greater things, and that is something that everyone of us must believe. We need a powerful will and commitment not only from the leaders of this nation, but also from every single individual, following the whole of nation approach.

Our government today are in need of revolutionary and transformational change. Everything must be done better, smarter, and faster while doing more with less and building organizations that attract and retain talented leaders and staff. Transformational leaders are said to be leaders who are skilled at leading with clear vision, direction and serving as inspiration, championing change by means of initiating, facilitating and implementing change, and transforming organizations by knowing present realities, identifying future ideals and developing and implementing a process for transforming organization.

With the direction that our government is currently taking, the whole of PPSC community enjoins with this noble quest for peace, progress and prosperity. As One PPSC, we envision ourselves to become leaders and catalyst of change. As transformational leaders, we must know how to encourage, inspire and motivate our people to perform in ways that create meaningful change. Let us remember the SIKLAB: Sulo Iwagayway, Dala ang Karunungan at Lahi ng Ating Inang Bayan, our desire to bring out the fire not just as individual but as a united organization. The Sulo signifies the light in each one of us and by creating the right mindset, we can bring out this fire and initiate the spark in everyone. As public servants, your leadership will matter the most, as it will drive the course of actions and direction of the organization and as we continue to pursue a strengthened public safety and security in our homeland.

PDDG. Ricardo F. De Leon (Ret.), Ph.D., PPSC, President