‘Trial balloons’

We heard a more sober President Rodrigo Duterte when he spoke yesterday at the 48th anniversary of the Presidential Airlift Wing at the Villamor Airbase in Pasay City. It was not as if he was inebriated when we describe him as more sober.

But less his usual fiery bombast, President Duterte could very well articulate his message without being too all over the place.

Doing away anew with a prepared speech, President Duterte addressed the controversy stirred by his latest off-the-cuff remarks. The President explained his previous day’s pronouncements at Malacañang Palace on the withdrawal of the remaining American military troopers from Mindanao.

To justify the withdrawal, the President warned that American troopers attract potential dangers of being kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf bandits, who are also behind terrorist activities in Mindanao.

Although we have abrogated the RP-US Military Bases Agreement, American troopers are governed by the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty between the Philippines and the US along with the 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement and the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, which was recently upheld by the Supreme Court.

President Duterte took the occasion yesterday to expound the “change of paradigm” in the country’s foreign policy. It was actually a follow-up of what he declared last Saturday that he would pursue an “independent foreign policy” for the country.

However, President Duterte stressed the Philippine government remains bound and committed with our “umbilical ties with our allies,” referring to the US. The Chief Executive grudgingly acknowledged yesterday the Philippines has deeply rooted ties with the US more than militarily speaking.

As the chief architect of the country’s foreign policy, the President made his “independent foreign policy” declaration during a press conference at the Davao International Airport, where he flew back after attending the ASEAN Leaders’ Summit meeting last week.

President Duterte was obviously still smarting from the snub of US President Barack Obama who skipped the requested one-on-one meeting with him at the sidelines of the ASEAN Leaders’ Summit held last week in Laos. It was seen as in retaliation after President Duterte was loosely quoted as saying by international media as having cussed at the US leader.

On last minute notice, President Obama begged off from the four-eyes meeting with President Duterte. The US leader called President Duterte a “colorful guy” for the latter’s profanity-laced speeches in public. The aborted one-on-one meeting between the two leaders was an offshoot of human rights violations being raised by the US government on the reported summary execution of drug suspects in the on-going narco-war of the Duterte administration.

Taking offense, President Duterte carped about the human rights violations by the Americans themselves during the colonial times in the Philippines, in the US itself and those they committed in other countries as well. To show his displeasure over Mr. Obama’s snub, President Duterte revealed last Monday he, too, intentionally skipped the ASEAN-US summit.

While apparently still hurting from this experience in his maiden international gathering, President Duterte yesterday indicated he is willing to rise above personal hurt to conduct the affairs of the state on a more sober note.

While insisting on the human rights record of the US, President Duterte admitted yesterday he raised the decibels several notches higher to correct a deeply flawed relationship between the two countries. “We could not be just a small country that can be shouted at by any foreign country,” the President said.

Originally, the Presidential Communications Office said President Duterte suffered a severe migraine to explain why he did not attend the ASEAN-US summit. A day earlier, the PCO leaked to the media about the supposed seating arrangement that could have placed Presidents Duterte and Obama next to each other. It turned out to be false.

PCO Secretary Martin Andanar, to his credit, gallantly owned up to the wrong information traced from his office. At the public hearing of the House appropriations committee yesterday on the PCO budget for next year, Andanar offered no excuses to the foul-ups in the first 100 days in office by his team.

“At the end of the day, he (Duterte) is our boss. And his communication style is far superior than mine,” Andanar told House legislators. The PCO secretary conceded “the premier spokesperson” for this government is no less than President Duterte himself.

When he was guest in our ASEAN-Japan Media forum last month, Andanar impressed upon international journalists that he could not and should not change the style of President Duterte even though at times, the latter’s off-the-cuff remarks get him into controversies.

President Duterte himself recognized the adversarial role the media plays in a democracy like in the Philippines and the US.

A former broadcast journalist himself, Andanar vowed to correct the system at the PCO to prevent a repeat of such grievous mistakes. That is, if I may add, such “leaks” and information are relayed, whether intentionally or not.

When we had then Davao City Mayor as our guest at The STAR presidential roundtable interview last May 5, I distinctly recall Duterte admitting that he resorts to issuing “trial balloon” statements. These are statements that are not necessarily true or still only at the planning stage, but are being prematurely revealed.

Such “trial balloon” scheme, he explained, help him gauge public reaction and guide him on policy actions, which he used to the hilt in the last May 9 election campaign and won him the presidency.

Employing “trial balloons” can be an effective tool for preemptive action to forestall or anticipate a possible scenario.

This we can sense from the latest claims of President Duterte on a supposed “impeach” bid against him by groups he calls as the “yellows” in the 17th Congress. Impeachment plotters are being smoked out in the open.