Freaked out
I do not dispute the latest survey results that show President Duterte's trust and satisfaction ratings taking a nosedive. It was bound to happen. No one who is in charge of an entire nation of 100 million plus contentious Filipinos can keep everybody happy. Besides, Duterte himself dropped the ball right before the referee, there was no way he could have missed the fumble and not blow the whistle.
And by fumble I do not mean the extrajudicial killings that some sectors are struggling mightily to associate with his aggressive war on illegal drugs in order to undermine it. Those who belong to these sectors are few. They are just noisy and consistent with their noise. But I do not think the majority of Filipinos would buy the scuttlebutt that the police are just picking up suspects on a whim and shooting them.
To believe in that scenario is to willfully and completely ignore the fact that there are millions upon millions of loose firearms out there, guns that have been acquired for a reason. And I do not think the reason is simply to keep them hidden in some closet. So when a drug suspect gets killed and the police say it was the result of a shootout, I would find it, given what is known about gun proliferation, a more plausible explanation than that the suspect was killed for no reason.
Of course there are exceptions. Common sense dictates that there has to be exceptions. Unfortunately, it is the exceptions that are often given the surfeit of hype by detractors. But there are giant inroads the government has made in the war on drugs. And the silent majority sees what is really going on. They know the real score. They know the extent of the drug problem and they understand what it means if the government stops now.
So I do not think EJKs are responsible for Duterte's ratings blues. I do not think it is a source of any woe for him. What I truly suspect brought the ratings down faster and steeper than what most people imagined was Duterte's continued inability to tame his tongue. When Duterte speaks, especially when angry, he starts to freak people out. I should know. I get freaked out myself. Duterte can really give people the creeps.
And I find this very disconcerting because I happen to believe in only two things as far as Duterte and the drug war is concerned. First, I believe there is no more turning back on the drug war. We are astride a tiger from which we can no longer get off without getting devoured. Stop now and we will see even more EJKs done by the other side. A drug war is a fight to the finish. And that brings me to my second belief, that it is only Duterte who can wage such a war and possibly win it.
Those who believe the drug problem will go away by itself should be locked up. Those who believe it can be solved by other means do not have their feet planted squarely on the ground. They find fault but offer no alternatives. It amazes me to no end that there are still people who do not appreciate just how sweeping the drug problem has become. If they are oblivious to this reality, they will soon find out in a terrible way if Duterte gives up and abandons the war.
I do not know why everybody is all caught up in the surveys. There is only one war that matters and it is against drugs, not about numbers. If we do not fight this war now, there will be nothing to fight for in the future. I must admit, though, that while I refuse to get caught up in surveys, I did get a nosebleed when told Leni Robredo had numbers shooting for the stars. What? For doing nothing? Sometimes I wonder if this country does not really deserve what it is getting.
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