Build, build, and destroy
It is truly encouraging that the current administration is pursuing physical infrastructure building in Metro Manila and key cities around the country. Plans have also been announced for bridges, railways and other ways to connect areas more expeditiously around our archipelago, which is running behind our neighbors in infrastructure, where once upon a time, before the disruptive and overly prolonged Marcos era, we were ahead of our ASEAN neighbors. Fortunately, the government of Benigno S. C. Aquino III enriched our government coffers, giving the present administration a head start. If it succeeds, the Duterte administration can leave a legacy for much hardware. It is however, in software ( justice, human rights, public moral standards, quality of media, institution building) that there is cause for much distress.
Given his consistently high approval ratings, the President’s decisiveness, whether right or wrong, is resonating with the majority of the Filipino people. It is interesting to note that his approval rating has declined somewhat in Mindanao, which is his bailiwick, perhaps because his decision to declare martial law throughout the southernmost parts of the country are not favored by a good enough number to make a difference. After all, even the Department of National Defense had only recommended martial law in Marawi, and today, they are also recommending an extension in that city, not in all of Mindanao. Let us see what the incredibly obsequious Lower House has to say about that.
The return of Police Superintendent Marvin Marcos to active duty in a police leadership position in Mindanao is unbelievable. Investigations by the NBI and the Senate concluded, based on evidence presented that Marcos and his team murdered at the crack of dawn, the detained Mayor Rolando Espinosa inside his jail cell together with his cell mate Raul Yap. Witnesses stated that they were unarmed, for how could they be, being detainees? Again, because he can, the President said: “I do not care. I will insist on the truthfulness of the police, period. And I will defend them.” There has been much public outcry against this decision, which ignores due process, including from the Senate. Former PNP Chief now Senator Ping Lacson himself blurted out some Duterte-style expletives in his incredulity. The FSGO (Former Senior Government Officials, headed by former Cabinet members Jose Cuisia, Narz Lim, DJ de Jesus, and Fulgencio Factoran) have issued a statement objecting to the President’s in-yourface decision, which obviously he ordered his other obsequious
Our President does not seem to care about criticisms for his use of misogynistic language because he can.
appointee, PNP Chief “Bato” de la Rosa to carry out. Inquirer columnist John Nery has raised the obvious question. Why is Duterte defending Marvin Marcos (cousin of Bongbong)? Is it as a favor in return for favors from the Marcoses? Or is it because he actually ordered Marvin Marcos to assassinate Mayor Espinosa while he was in Jail? He did admit publicly that he wanted Espinosa, an alleged drug lord, “shot on sight.” Did Espinosa know things that Duterte did not want revealed? One cannot help wondering.
The rape jokes that he keeps repeating in public, for which he promises policemen and soldiers alike, that he would answer for, is tasteless and shameful, and clearly an assault on our moral standards. Muslim leader Samira Gutoc Tomawis, bless her heart, resigned from her post as member of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission to express her objection to this insult on women. Our President does not seem to care about criticisms for his use of misogynistic language because he can. What is it about women that he wants to downgrade them? Look at the list of women he has maligned: Senator Leila de Lima, VP Leni Robredo, and the honorable Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales. Is this his way of demonstrating his machismo? Doesn’t he realize that he is setting a terrible example to the young boys and men of our country? The Filipina has been described as the “best man in the Philippines.” Is this why he is angry at them?
The case for which Senator Leila de Lima is accused and detained involves testimony by witnesses who are Bilibid prisoners convicted of serious crimes, and who have been identified as among the leaders in the drug business inside the prison. They were reported to have been transferred to more cushy quarters, most likely in return for their testimonies. The so- called Justice Secretary Vitaliano Napenas Aguirre, another one of the obsequious appointees of the President to high office is in charge of ensuring that Senator de Lima stays in jail. Fortunately, this human rights activist and former Chair of the Human Rights Commission and former Justice secretary has not given up on her fight for justice. She continues to do her work from her detention cell. Here is another example of a sordid inyour-face use of power to wreak vengeance on perceived enemies of the President.
The extrajudicial killings continue unabated, according to press reports. Most if not all of the victims who are photographed by media are evidently from poor communities, and their shoeless bodies are found in dirty and dark, depressing alleys. Meanwhile, at least two alleged Cebu-based drug lords whom President Duterte identified in public early in his term as among those he would “kill” have apparently not even been charged. Businessman Peter Lim (Duterte’s compadre at the wedding of a mining magnate) is off the radar. And former Police Superintendent, the wealthy Vicente Loot remains mayor of DaanBantayan, Cebu, where it is said, he also controls the illegal fishing boats that ply the municipal waters that he is supposed to protect for his small fishers, whose livelihoods have been direly reduced.
The Office of the Ombudsman is among the last institutions still alive that are working for justice in our country. And the President continues to malign it. What will happen to this institution when the heroic and hardworking Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales retires next year? What kind of creature will the President appoint to replace her? Will this replacement contribute to the increasing destruction of institutions built piece by piece since the EDSA Revolution, from the time we ratified our present Constitution? Today, the Philippine Daily
Inquirer changes hands, as it is turned over to controversial businessman and friend of Marcos crony Danding Cojuangco. Will this be the beginning of the end of free media in our country? This hardhitting newspaper contributed to the end of the authoritarian and corrupt Marcos era. Let us hope and pray that the Inquirer does not turn into yet another obsequious ally of our already alas, hugely popular president. Let us hope that being already so popular, he will allow enough dissent to flourish and clean up his language if we are to continue calling ourselves a democracy. And a decent one and law-abiding one, to boot. �