Presidential distractions

The word war between President Rodrigo Duterte and Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales has sparked fears that this could lead to the erosion of the institutions that they respectively represent.

But I won't even suggest that both are at fault in this scuffle. This is solely instigated by the president who can't keep his mouth in check over his contempt against strong women -women leaders of integrity and character- who happen to contradict his position on certain issues.

The other woman I'm referring to is Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno who is facing impeachment raps before a hostile House of Representatives. It is hard to imagine that Duterte has no hand in the impeachment process against Sereno, even if the whole point is probably just to antagonize the chief justice without necessarily seeing through the whole process.

If I were to destabilize this government, that is exactly the point of weakness I would exploit -Duterte's temperamental susceptibility to engage in unnecessary skirmishes.

His enemies would exploit that weakness because it would distract him from the real challenges where he should be steering the nation's focus on. It would sap the momentum of reforms in his administration's promise of change.

That the nationwide protests of September 21 came to pass without any remarkable incident should assure the president that his position is secure. Save for his messy war on drugs, people still want him to do what he was placed there to do.

But he doesn't have an ounce of prudence and magnanimity in him. In his spat with Sen. Antonio Trillanes, for example, Duterte seems so eager to show how he can destroy a puny second-rate politician. What Duterte doesn't realize is that instead of elevating his position, he is actually elevating the senator's profile and prolonging the latter's 15 minutes of fame.

But maybe the president is just all the while playing a joke on his critics. After all, that's what he always says when he finds himself in a tight situation. It is not farfetched to think that he could just be playing around with Trillanes, and in the case of Morales, could just be testing the Ombudsman's resolve. In Cebuano, we call that "nanungog" and "nanikdo".

Whatever the president's intentions are, what is clear is that these intramurals have already distracted the nation's attention from more pressing matters.

Speaking of pressing matters, that brings me to the issue of the promised shift of the system of government to a federal form. I know there is a concrete plan for the shift but shouldn't we be talking and deliberating about it already?

I support the shift toward a federal form of government, and would like the president to hustle it through before the trajectory of his political capital could slide down after the midterm election. The federal system will not be a perfect system but at least it will shift the levers of accountability from an oblivious central government to the more attuned state governments.

Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III has voiced his reservations about the shift to a federal form of government. Whatever his reasons are, his position seems consistent with his low-key style and laidback, if not, faint leadership footprint. In fairness, the governor has kept his straight arrow image and has not joined the opportunistic bandwagon toward PDP-Laban.

Anyhow, back to Duterte. The president should keep a tight rein on his temper and stop courting disaster by roughhousing the country's key institutions. He should bear in mind that as the nation's chief presiding officer, he sets the agenda of discourse.

‘If I were to destabilize this government, that is exactly the point of weakness

I would exploit -Duterte's temperamental susceptibility to engage in unnecessary

skirmishes.’