What if “The President is Missing”?

I have just finished reading the latest masterpiece by the brilliant fiction writer James Patterson (co-authored by former US president Bill Clinton) entitled “The President is Missing,” a political thriller. In the telenovela “Ang Probinsyano,” the president, Oscar Hidalgo (played by Rowell Santiago), has been missing for a few weeks now and the vice president is now the impostor in Malacañan (played by the villainous Edu Manzano). It is good in the case of President Hidalgo because there is the “superhero,” the cop turned rebel, Cardo, (played by Coco Martin) with unlimited lives and who never runs out of bullets in all skirmishes and enemy assaults.

And then President Duterte announced on TV in a public admission that he has some problems with his health. Well, I would say that this is not the time to get sick, Mr. President. The inflation rate has reached an unprecedented level. The military intelligence has announced that there is a serious threat to the security of the state. The drug problems continue to pester us and the war against drugs always ends up being attacked on the issues of human rights violations, alleged extra-judicial killings and summary executions. There is trouble in the South China Sea. The global terrorists continue to besiege us with high risks of bombings and assassinations. Then the left and the center are consolidating to confront the government on many socio-economic issues.

Our president is 72 years old. He is very active passionate, if you will. He spreads himself too thinly, travelling far and wide, here and abroad. Even as he is presented with gargantuan problems about peace and order, economic crisis and social conflicts, typhoons and hurricanes keep on coming and destroying our homes and crops. The president’s men are not performing as they should be. They would rather go to London as a group, to attend a Filipino fast food chain opening and eat chicken and steaks while millions here are suffering in hunger and anger. There are characters in the Cabinet and sub-Cabinet levels who are making his problems even worse.

And so, heaven forbid, if the presidential health problem is exacerbated by the stress that his own officials create, and if his stomach pains continue, would the president go missing? I don’t think so, especially because he does not trust his vice president. In Patterson’s novel it was a blitzkrieg cyber attack that made the US president go on his own missing for some days. In “Ang Probinsyano,” President Hidalgo went into hiding after his whole family was kidnapped by bad elements under the command of the treacherous vice president, then rescued by the omnipotent Cardo.

The president has many enemies now, coming from the left led by Joma Sison, and also from the right composed of the oligarchs led by the Liberal Party members and yellow army of bourgeoisie and intelligentsia, the academe, the church, and the labor sector. I feel some pity for our head of state and head of government. The challenges are far too many and far too formidable. And his men are not the best that we deserve. I am praying hard for President Duterte. This is not the time to hate him but to help him survive and succeed.

‘This is not the time to hate him but to help him

survive and succeed.’