THE BEST, OR WORST, IN THE COUNTRY IS YET TO COME. MEANTIME, BEAR THE CURRENT TURBULENCE.
1. Economy is ‘in the doldrums.’ President Duterte himself said. True or not, inflation is high and oppresses the poor and the middle class further. The muchballyhooed Train Law seems to be derailed.
2. Illegal killings and police impunity continue.
3. The president rants at bishops, priests and God and snaps at foreigners who criticize the state of human rights in the Philippines. He publicly shames his enemies, between making jokes and kissing women on stage.
4. Peace efforts with communist and other rebels
appear stuck in confusing and harsh rhetoric, as the CPP-NPA and Duterte vow to crush each other. 5. Lawmakers are girding to grapple with the Constitution and overhaul the form of government, which most Filipinos do not want and do not care about.
PRESIDENT DUTERTE himself was the bearer of bad news as he predicted last June 24 that rising prices of goods and services would go on “in a long period of gloom.” Inflation soared to 5.2% in June, a record high since 2011.
The numbers in death casualties keep going up as the value of life goes down. The poor feel they’re being targeted by the climate of violence. Along with the clergy, mayors, lawyers, and street loiterers, they fear for their safety.
Physical security for many Filipinos may continue to be elusive as acts of violence erupt and the culprits are not quickly caught and punished.
At war
The president seems to be at war on many fronts but maybe not on those that matter most: the economy, peace and order, basic human rights, stability of our institutions.
Many wonder if this was the change they wanted from the new leaders.
While we wait though for that rainbow amid the storm that flogs the country, we don’t seem to have lost hope. But too few stand and speak out to condemn what is illegal or wrong. Most of us still cheer the leaders who govern the nation.
We’re entertained
And, yes, we’re being entertained. Nobody can say he is bored. On the national stage, our models of good conduct and sources of wisdom prance and say outrageous things that oddly we find funny and inoffensive until we read or watch them reported and later know that they shocked the rest of the world.
It’s probably not as bad as the president sees it. Meanwhile, poll ratings keep him aloft, high enough to make him think he can do anything he wants.