Change is coming: Flip-flop pa more!

WE’VE ALL been told by then presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte – Change is Coming!

After that fair warning, why should we now be surprised by President Duterte’s changing his mind whenever he gets caught in a corner after blurting out something unintended, preposterous, not presidential, or simply rude?

His flip-flopping statements are too many to be quoted here. But they are recorded in news stories, in reports of embassies and banks, in Google, and social media, or etched in people’s minds. Subjects range from political rhetoric to foreign relations.

They include his statements/promises to: end crime and corruption in six months or he would resign if he failed; expel US servicemen from Mindanao; pull out the Philippines from the United Nations; issue a Freedom of Information executive order on his first day in Malacañang, confront President Obama on the latter’s statements about human rights when they meet in Vientiane; put an early stop to “endo” or the contractualization of workers.

Is this fickleness of mind – called by some as FMD or Foot-in-the-Mouth Disease – a symptom of something seriously wrong? We hope not.

We confess our being incompetent to psychoanalyze the man, explain his continually changing statements and his propensity to curse others who, like him, deserve respect. Maybe a specialist or a think tank can help explain the twists and turns of presidential thinking?

• Pacquiao says Matobato was coached

WE HAD planned to write for today, a Sunday, something safe and pretty, like maybe about conserving the environment or about Filipino family values. Or about our fantasy of abolishing prisons and in their place putting flower gardens.

But we were struck by the subject of flip-flopping after Sen. Manny Pacquiao surprised us last Thursday with his cross-examination of confessed assassin Edgar Matobato testifying on ExtraJudicial Killings in Davao City, now the country’s political center of gravity.

In 1-2-3 fashion, the “Pambansang Kamao” laid the premises and jumped to the conclusion that a person like Matobato who sometimes changes his statements is not credible and, at worst, is likely a liar.

After that well-aimed cross, the champion boxer moonlighting as a senator (or vice versa), announced his verdict that Matobato – who completed only Grade-1 but was trusting enough to testify without a lawyer – was coached on his testimony.

Pacquiao grilled him about his changing testimonies on his engagement as a Davao Death Squad member, his recollection of how some persons were murdered, the school where he fetched a son of then Mayor Duterte, and certain dates when he did this or that. The simple-looking man, aged 57, admitted he may have faulty recollection.

After announcing that Matobato had been coached, Pacquiao said thank you and sat down, leaving the man no chance to explain. Fortunately for the witness, senators Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes, when their turn came up, elicited clarifications from him.

Sen. Alan Cayetano peppered Matobato earlier with questions apparently to trip and discredit him. He succeeded in confusing him – but inadvertently gave him a chance to clear up some details, including Duterte’s involvement. As a lawyer, Cayetano should have known that it is risky to over-cross-examine a witness who may be telling the truth.

Noting Pacquiao’s curt cross, a netizen on Twitter picked up the cudgels for Matobato and posted what could have been his tit-for-tat response:

“Tao lang po ako, Sir, pwedeng malito sa Ateneo o PWU, saka medyo may katagalan na nung naghatid ako sa school nya. Ikaw po, Sir, bakit sinabi mo nuon na against ka sa gay marriage at LGBT, sinabi mo mas masahol pa sila sa hayop. Tapos sinabi mo kinabukasan na hindi ka against sa gay at LGBT. Nakalimutan nyo rin po ba ang sinabi mo. Eh, wala pa pong isang araw ang nakalipas. Bakit po palipat-lipat ka ng sinusuportahan? Dati Arroyo, tas naging Villar, tas PNoy, ngayon naman Duterte, at pabago-bago kayo ng salita. Saka po ilang beses na po kayo nahuli ni mam Kim Henares ng tax evasion at pabago-bago pa kayo ng salita.”

• Await Duterte’s written invitation to UN

PRESIDENT Duterte was reported to have invited the United Nations to investigate alleged human rights violations in the Philippines and the summary killing of suspected drug dealers and users now numbering more than 3,000 since he assumed office June 30.

He also reportedly challenged officials of the UN and the European Union, as well as President Obama, to come over and debate with him. He boasted that he would trounce them and asked his audience to watch him do it.

He was quoted as saying: “I’m inviting the United Nations (secretary-general) Ban Ki…what’s the name of that devil again? Ban Ki-moon, Ban Ki-sun. I am inviting the EU. Send the best player of your team. Even the rapporteurs, come to the Philippines.

“I’ll write them a letter to invite them for an investigation, but in keeping with the time-honored principle of the right to be heard, after they ask me questions, I’ll ask them one by one.”

We better wait for Malacañang or the foreign office to announce that the invitation had been sent. Who knows, the President might again change his mind or add some pre-conditions.

Rapporteurs of the UN Human Rights Council (of which the Philippines is a member) will not just enter a member-country and investigate without an official invitation.

We should also await President Duterte or his representatives to write their counterparts about Philippine intentions for American military personnel who are in Mindanao under the Phl-US Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement.

The public, as it is with countries the Philippines deals with, will have to see their intentions written out – in view of the flip-flopping.

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