Who is the leader they want?

DAVAOEÑO President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday delivered his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA). As per his earlier pronouncement he reported to the Filipino people what he thought his administration has accomplished during the last three years that he was in office.

The President was buoyed with confidence in rendering his report since the results of surveys conducted on his performance by two of the country’s most respected opinion pollsters showed that the people clearly approve of what he has been doing.

When the President told the nation the reason why he has taken a different tact in dealing with the West Philippine Sea issue, it was clear that he did it with frankness and courage. Yes, in front of a highly diverse crowd at the Batasang Pambansa session hall and the millions of opinionated and politicized Filipinos witnessing his SONA on television, the President had no iota of hesitation to let out his thought that the majority of the Filipinos across all classes believe he is on the right direction.

And even as the President was confidently delivering his SONA in the confines of the Batasan Hall beamed live all over the country through television, there were also some Filipinos who were ranting against him only less than a kilometer away from the SONA venue. They were the usual occupiers of the “other side” regardless of who sits in Malacañang. They were those who never cease to have issues against the Philippines’ “subservience” to the United States of America.

Now that the Duterte administration is veering away from “Uncle Sam” and doing a pivot to China, the socalled Asian superpower, they suddenly lose immediate reason for the cause. But a new group has risen. This one is an agglomeration of the staunchest of American Boys (Amboys) in the Philippines, the politicians and top government functionaries who were ousted from their positions with the rise of Duterte, and their elite cronies whose interests may have been threatened by administration policies. It is this new group that the perennial protesters appear to be having some kind of tactical alliance in pursuing a common cause other than the anti-US sentiment. That is, that Duterte’s China pivot is surrendering Philippine sovereignty over the WPS.

Another common ground the protesters are standing together is the issue of human rights violations in the administration’s campaign against illegal drugs. On this issue the anti-Duterte coalition people are buoyed up with the recent intervention of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolving to have the issue investigated.

Duterte’s message on this aspect in his SONA was clear. An investigation on the HR issue in the country is a clear intervention of the internal affairs of a sovereign nation.

Of course the protesters aired their own version of the state of the nation. They used every available adjective to paint the Duterte administration and his person to make it and him the total opposite of what he (Duterte) reported in his SONA.

Will the demonstrators’ presentation of the Duterte administration and his person get across the minds of the Filipinos considering the magnanimous support of the greater mass of the people on the President and his program?

Theirs is a perception which, if to be believed in, has to be reckoned with the outcome of the latest results of both the Social Weather Station (SWS) and the Pulse Asia surveys – all thumbs up for the administration. And if the results of on-air surveys of broadcast programs regarding people’s views on the UNHRC planned probe of the Duterte HR records are to be added, then the coalesced antiDuterte administration groups could be facing frustration.

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And talking of trust in the Duterte administration, what more can vouch for it but the recent giving of more assistance to the Philippine government’s efforts to rebuild Marawi City despite of the reported delay.

Consider this: If there are more vocal critics of the Duterte administration these are the governments of the

United States and Australia. In fact the latter has issued a travel advisory to its citizens not to go to Mindanao where Marawi City is, to avoid possibility of harm because of what the Australian government perceives as happening in the southern island of the Philippines.

Last week both US and Australia announced they are extending a total of P374 million additional assistance to the people displaced by the retaking of Marawi from the pro-Islamic state fighters who attacked and occupied the city in May 2017. And the two governments did this in the midst of efforts by some sectors to create an image of corruption and incompetence of the Duterte government in implementing the rebuilding programs and projects.

Now, if giving such big amount of aid to the Philippines under a supposedly untrustworthy administration is not a show of trust by two harsh government critic countries, then what is trust to the coalesced anti-Duterte administration groups?

What to them is the measure of a true leader? Is it the leader who easily capitulates to the opinion of the few who believe that they have the monopoly of doing what is right for the Filipino people? Is it the leader who forgets that there are much more in number of Filipinos who believe they also have the right to lead peaceful, relatively contentedlives free of fear from attacks of criminals, especially the drug-crazed ones?

Is the leader they want the one who insists on dealing with sovereignty issues on a “to the letter” definition provided by the Constitution? Isn’t there too much risk if

such insistence could end up tipping the balance of what’s good for the people and what is good for the books and documents?

The number of people who attended yesterday’s rally showing that the veiled call by anti-administration personalities for a people power failed did give us the answer.