‘Solomonic’ move?

Feeding one’s political ambition is really difficult. Or at least that is what lawyer Harry Roque must have realized now. He has long wanted to become senator and thus grabbed the chance of ending up in the senatorial slate of the administration party in next year’s midterm polls by accepting the job of presidential spokesperson. A human rights lawyer deodorizing someone accused of disrespecting those rights? That’s Roque.

Roque it was who gushed over what he described as President Rodrigo Duterte’s “solomonic” decision on the row that has rocked the Philippines’ relation with Kuwait. Here’s how Roque put it:

“Parang he’s been thinking long and hard about it. Sinabi niya kung anong gagawin niya, which was really neither the recommendation of secretaries Bello and Cayetano. I think it was he who thought it himself...Medyo solomonic. My immediate answer is, I did not expect that. It’s a Duterte pronouncement so of course it’s dramatic.”

Roque at that time refused to provide details, saying the president himself would be the one to announce his “solomonic” decision. But Roque’s use of the adjective meant people’s expectation of what the decision would be soared sky-high. The question then was would expectation tally with reality?

The Jewish Virtual Library says Solomon was the son of Israel’s King David and Bathsheba and became king not only because his father favored him but also because he prevailed over his brothers in the struggle for the throne. He became king in 967 BCE and his kingdom extended from the Euphrates River in the north to Egypt in the south. He is known not only for his wealth and his writings but more so for his wisdom.

Almost everybody is familiar with the biblical story that showcased the so-called “solomonic wisdom.” It was about two women who went to his court with a baby that each of them claimed to be her child. Solomon threatened to split the baby in half. One woman accepted the decision while the other begged Solomon to give the baby instead to her rival rather than see the child being killed. The king thus knew she was the mother.

So what was the president’s “solomonic” decision on the Kuwait row?

It seems like it is like this. First, he would abandon the proposed memorandum of agreement with Kuwait that would have improved the working condition there of the thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) there. Also his earlier order banning the deployment of OFWs to Kuwait stays. Third, he is encouraging the OFWs in Kuwait to either return home or be redeployed to other countries like China and Japan. Fourth is to use the “almost P4,6 something billion” that China gave the Philippines as financial assistance to assist Filipinos displaced in the Kuwait row.

Do those moves constitute what Roque gushed about as “solomonic”? I don’t know. But What I am sure of is that those moves won’t solve the conflict brought about by the erroneous rescue move by the Philippine government in Kuwait and are not assurance enough that the OFWs would no longer suffer from the row’s consequences,

Which I say is unfortunate development.