Duterte is really being destabilized

Whether you are pro or anti Duterte, one thing that we cannot deny is that there is truth to the claims of the administration’s talking heads that there are groups out to destabilize the Duterte administration. That is the truth and there is no denying how effective they are. In a matter of months the “Destabilizers” have successfully destabilized the government while telling the President that their work would benefit the people and “make this country great again.” The only reason the administration cannot see or identify the destabilizers is because they are all under the very nose of the President.

The number one group of destabilizers are the “tax collectors” who in one fell swoop passed what was suppose to be a pro-people tax reform law but ended up deforming and destabilizing the Philippine economy. Thanks to them Metro Manila is allegedly “enjoying” an actual 7 percent inflation rate (not the official 5.1) while the rest of the country is averaging above 5 percent. Thanks to the tax collectors at the Department of Finance the poor during the time of P-Noy are now poorer under Duterte because the preventive measures and safety nets to help the poor were never rolled out with the TRAIN from hell. Ironically, the credit for destabilizing the Duterte administration is not the monopoly of the Finance and economic managers but also belongs to the Pro-Duterte minions in Congress who rejoiced in passing TRAIN 1 but now wash their hands of guilt by hypocritically posing as Anti-Train2! Pilate at least tried to save Jesus, Congress crucified the Filipinos.

The second group of destabilizers are the council of experts, political economists and scribes who mouthed corrections and justifications on why fuel prices rocketed (not their fault), why food prices soared(not their fault), why runaway inflation followed Train 1 like a plague (still not their fault). These bunch of apologists successfully created an atmosphere of confusion and mis-information as they countered each other on computations, projections and forecasts. They even managed to torpedo the draft charter for federalism by arguing about economic impact and financial costs. Of course part of the credit for killing the draft charter also goes to the clan of Jezebel who danced and charmed President Duterte’s cherished federalism plan to oblivion.

If the high priests of Malacanang did not do enough damage, the high priests in Congress had to launch their own internal destabilization and coup d’ etat and follow through with injecting their own proposals on how to run the economic affairs of the Duterte government. For a brief moment of time, the new Speaker of the House met with Duterte’s economic managers thereby creating an impression that the former president and economics professor had step in to run the show. Intentional or not, that meeting and the successive pronouncement of Speaker Arroyo’s economist Congressmen and former cabinet did not help and still added to the problem. Incidentally, the change of Speakership and the serious internal conflict inside the President’s own party also contributed to the destabilization.

Equally effective were the “experts of the law” who persecuted political enemies. Agree or violently disagree as they may, all the President’s men have to remove the scales from their eyes and the hate in their hearts in order to realize that the attack on former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno ended up being an attack on the Supreme Court of the Philippines. What made it worse was the attack orchestrated by SolGen Jose Calida who by using Quo Warranto became an attack on Congress and the Philippine Constitution, the most sacred testament of all laws in the Philippines. Sadly the attack on Sereno exposed for all to see how the Supreme Court had been infected and diseased with the politics of men. In a one-two punch the “experts of the Law” under Duterte trashed both the Supreme Court and the Constitution. While we as a people may have trifled and rewritten our Constitution several times to protect “our” interest and defeat future plans of “our” enemies, other governments, peoples and corporations deem a nation’s constitution as an embodiment of their beliefs, political and economic goals and ideals as well as their sense of honor, duty and stability. Spit at the Constitution and you spit at your countrymen.

“Experts of the Law” also persecuted an unknown, aged missionary woman who was so old she could barely walk without assistance. But the government deemed her worthy of punishment through expulsion from the Philippines. Given the President’s expressed hatred against priests, it was not far fetched for the public to view the concerted effort to expel Sister Fox as religious persecution and extreme, petty abuse of power!

Recently, the “expert of the Law” Jose Calida spearheaded a most amateurish surprise attack against the not so popular Senator Antonio Trillanes. I have time and again advised Duterte Cabinet members to IGNORE TRILLANES. Treat him lightly with a touch of humor and you take away his sting. But no, Joe Calida had to have his dose of bile and vile by attempting to revoke the Senator’s amnesty. Honestly and objectively speaking, this was the undoing of the Duterte administration. That you would stoop so low and sneak up on your enemy using all the powers of the state just to jail your “critic” was bad enough. But that you could not even do it legally and properly really takes the cake. Many people who were apolitical or neutral suddenly woke up with the realization that “this” government can and will stoop so low to hurt and neutralize its enemies.

When men and women no longer hold anything sacred: not the law, not the courts, neither life, not even God. What then can stand and be stable? You have brought this upon yourself.

* * *