Destabilization rumors

RUMORS always have an element of truth. Fake news, maliciously floated disinformation, and groundless destabilization plots are par for the course as well as threats of expanding martial law nationwide, which Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana quickly shot down as “remote possibility,” are discomforting, dismaying, and alarming to investor confidence and political stability, if the dysfunctional rumors are not immediately neutralized by the administration.

These rumors can emanate from exasperated CPP-NPA-NDF leadership; from come-backing ambitious yellow operators for the Liberal Party; from ISIS-instigated rebellion; and increasingly nervous businessmen and tycoons with substantial fortunes and investments at stake if freedom and democracy are circumscribed.

First, the general public would like now to see less rhetoric and presidential diatribes and more consistent policies and direction.

Moreover, there seems to be an emerging DU30 selective justice that is different from the Noynoy Aquino selective concentration on political foes when a “whiff” of corruption calls for immediate dismissal, 6.4 billion pesos worth of smuggled “shabu” sailed smoothly down the customs zone, without anybody being indicted and convicted, with Customs Commissioner Faeldon remaining a “man of integrity,” and when three teenagers, whether addicts or not, were brutally gunned down and killed by trigger-happy policemen.

Media and TV networks have been having a picnic squeezing every ounce of juice from this selective justice at the expense of the administration.

Second, it is neither good governance nor flattering when Pres. Duterte appoints retired military officers to senior civilian positions while civilian bureaucrats are construed to be slow and lethargic, which is sheer tactlessness.

There are sectors and groups that are not happy with developing trends which invariably result in rumors of coups and destabilization plots against the administration even when they have, at the moment, no factual basis or credibility.

Moreover, in spite of Pres. Duterte’s generosity, cash gifts, and bonuses, discontent and resentment start emerging when widows and children of gallant soldiers and displaced widows and children of slain drug offenders settle down to poverty and income loss from legitimate soldiering or illegal sources.

When all is said and done, Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte must confront and address these problems that start from rumors to fact.

Popularity is fleeting and loyalty of the masses is fickle and ephemeral. Resigning is not the brave man’s way out. You be the judge.

“Where there is no peril in the fight, there is no glory in the triumph.” — Pierre Corneille