‘It’s just a storyline’

At the risk of sounding like an apologist, the more I get exposed to the president and the more I speak to him, the more I get to understand President Rodrigo Duterte’s stream of consciousness manner of speaking especially before a crowd, deviating from prepared text to talk about an issue with a continuous flow of words that, when examined in their entirety, give a clear picture of what he wanted to convey.

People tell me this was again evident in the issue regarding the slaying of the late Albuera, Leyte mayor Rolando Espinosa when he said he will not allow the policemen to go to jail because they were acting on his “direct orders.” His critics have been quick to pounce on this to say the president admitted being the mastermind of Espinosa’s slaying. But the fact is, President Duterte was really referring to his orders for the police to wage a relentless war against illegal drugs in this country, especially since he also told the NBI to file a case.

On many occasions, he issues provocative statements like when he said at the height of his exasperation with the US that Americans who want to visit the Philippines should also be required to get a visa. When one of his Cabinet secretaries asked him, “Do you really plan to do that?” – the president replied, in Visayan – “Istorya man lang, bay” – meaning “it’s just a storyline” – not to be taken literally.

As a very close friend of the president told me, “You really have to be very familiar with the way the president thinks to get what he really means because he sometimes expresses himself in a meandering way.” There was a lot of confusion especially in the past, with his spokespersons struggling to interpret the president’s words and putting the meaning into context. Unfortunately, this can also be used by critics to attribute all kinds of things against him.

As a former prosecutor, the president is well aware of the legal system and very comfortable in telling his critics to file charges and try to impeach him. One thing is clear and everybody knows it – the president is really passionate about the issue of illegal drugs, corruption and criminality – and he believes they are all intertwined and have practically pervaded every corner of society.

No question, the biggest concern among people are the killings related to the war on illegal drugs, to the point that foreign media are picking up the story as seen in the account of a photojournalist from New York Times that documented 57 homicides in the course of his 35-day stay in the country. The stories and photos are vivid and graphic, painting a picture of corruption and complicity among cops and the brutality of gangland-style executions conducted by masked vigilantes.

This war on drugs – and rumors tagging her as one of those allegedly conspiring to oust President Duterte – has apparently prompted Loida Nicolas Lewis to call for the president’s resignation, saying Vice President Leni Robredo could then be president who will continue the war against illegal drugs without anyone getting killed.

A lot of people who have very high regard for Lewis were surprised at her pronouncements, saying it was not in her place to demand for the president’s resignation. In fact, a Filipino-American Duterte supporter emailed us, saying that “… First of all, as an American citizen she has no business demanding the resignation of the president of the Philippines. Second, her being an heiress doesn’t give her a sense of entitlement, acting like a cacique – forgetting that over 16 million Filipinos voted for Mayor Duterte during the elections.”

Another person also scored Lewis for her naivety in saying that the war on drugs can be conducted without anyone getting killed in the process – for the simple reason that this is a multibillion-dollar industry that has also become a transnational problem. The people involved in it – particularly the dealers, will not sit idly by and let their source of income run dry without a fight, another reader emailed to us.

When all is said and done, however, the rule of law and the legal process should be followed and the final arbiter for al these issues should be the courts of law – for such is how a real democracy works.

The LP should be the real opposition

All this talk about an overthrow is pure rumor mongering which I think is very unhealthy because this country cannot afford another people power revolution. Filipinos have had enough of that, and many are more concerned about moving forward and finally achieving the progress and development that we should have had over the years.

The last time I saw Senate President Pro Tempore Frank Drilon, I said that it would really be good for the Liberal Party to become the real opposition and act as a “fiscalizer.” With Vice President Robredo now willing to lead the opposition, I take this as a healthy sign because we really need a strong opposition party to really be on the other side of the fence, so to speak, and maintain the political balance that is necessary in a democracy.

It’s also a good thing that the Liberal Party has said they will support the positive initiatives of the president – acting as a constructive opposition rather than a disruptive opposition that would oppose everything just for the sake of opposition. The military should be isolated from politics. The troops are now in the process of being professionalized. Their job is to focus on strengthening their capabilities in protecting the nation from threats – both external and internal. 

*      *      *

Email: [email protected]