The President, a man of actions, not words, to achieve his goals

MY son gave me an issue of a popular daily broad sheet newspaper. It contains anti-Duterte articles and pictures. The headline shows this. Widow tells Duterte: Kill drugs, not people. The picture shows the widow weeping over her slain husband suspected as a drug addict. For President Duterte, this is what he said. Kill drug addicts, users, pushers, couriers, and drug lords. Save the people who are victimized by these evil deeds who are murdered, raped, destroyers of peaceful homes and families, menaces to the society at large. Drug users have no more right to live. We must keep the dignity of people who have the right to live a peaceful life. The picture caption went further. It was irreverently compared to a famous religious icon of “La Pieta” the lifeless body of Jesus Christ who was taken down from the cross where He was crucified to redeem and save us from all our sins and laid on the lap of grieving Mother, Mama Mary who is experiencing her great suffering seeing her son who is sinless bloodied with sweat and dust on his face.

We read about the case of the ‘Cardboard Justice’ suspected as the work of the ‘vigilantes group’. It says, I am a pusher. This is the case in all gangland goons. They kill one another to save the big time drug lords. They want to be sure that no one will squeal on their bosses. A famous columnist had this allegorical phrase on his byline ‘President a loose cannon’. I believe in the sincerity and courage of the president when he insists in his honest efforts to make changes needed to make our country great again after regimes of corruption and misrule. He walks his talks. He will fight even if it will cost his life just to succeed, he says this all the time when challenged.

His Sona has come under heavy fire from international and domestic human rights groups for sending “confusing and contradictory messages” on his administration’s stance on human rights. The barrage was unleashed by the New York based Human Rights Watch on his ambivalent position as expressed in his speech. Phe lim Kine, Asia deputy director of HRW noted that the President rightly stated that the “rule of law must at all times prevail” and the government should respect “the human rights of our citizens.” But Kine said the president’s “unwillingness” to use his Sona to demand a thorough investigation of the alarming surge in police killings of suspected drugs dealers and users in recent weeks “symbolizes a critical failure” in his obligation to defend the rule of law and to uphold and protect the rights and freedoms of all Filipinos. Kine rebuked the President for “implicitly” voicing support for the rise in police killings of suspected drug dealers and users instead of speaking out against such brutality.

The UN secretary, General Ban Kimoon said that the drug control regime that emerged in the last century has proven disastrous to global health, security and human rights. President Duterte’s appeal has been his insistence that he can fix everything and does not care what corners to cut. Guardian said there is a cheeky chappy side to Mr. Duterte that can be engaging. But there can be no denying that in his office, he could prove to be a very loose cannon indeed.

In a commentary column from the same broadsheet, I read this - A senior citizen Cabinet. The cabinet of President Duterte may be considered the oldest in terms of biological age, in recent years.

In a speech the president, the president said his pool of appointees is limited because he does not have a wide social circle and that he maintains friendly ties with people he has known for many years. They may not be familiar with the modern communication gadgets as Internet, social media, smartphones, and other modern gizmos, they can learn these. Even if they are no longer youthful, this will not be a problem. They have expertise and experience from long years of government service and other private sectors. They are expected to hit the ground running after the President requested each of them to write a complete report on how they will introduce the complete agenda of their assigned cabinet position.

Lastly, all members of the new governing bodies of President Duterte must know the highlights of changes of his rule. All proposals must be in line with the improvement of the poor. There were talks with them to do something along this line of change. The wealthy must pay correct taxes. The BIR is under scrutiny concerning anomalies in its conduct of collections. Important items on the Budget submitted for approval include education, health, social welfare and development. Next are the infrastructures, investments on human resources, modernization of agricultural and rural development. Strategic parts of the whole country must establish potential business centers to lure citizens to migrate to these areas and decongest Metro Manila which till at present is the beehive of all big business centers. All these being said and planned for President Duterte’s regime, we can be assured of the dreamed changes for the next six years. For comments text cp. no. 09202112534.