State of Digong: Congrats on high ratings, but heed sensible critics FVR & Albright
President Duterte with former President Fidel V. Ramos
Congratulations to action-oriented and reformist President Rody R. Duterte as you prepare to deliver your 2017 State of the Nation Address (SONA). However, I recommend that you also listen to sensible critics, such as former President Fidel V. Ramos, former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and even opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros and her valid complaints on your sexist jokes.
Please do not fall into the hubris trap suffered by your predecessors in the halls and echo chambers of Malacañang Palace. It’s dangerous to just read your own camp’s praise releases.
Do not be lulled into resting on your past laurels or be intoxicated by sybarite good news showered upon you by your acolyte politicos, sycophant favor-seekers or your legions of admirers and social media loyalists.
I am reminded of the importance of criticism whenever I meet my super-smart and honestly scathing critic and younger sister Marilou. She doesn’t mince words on my lack of sleep and other shortcomings, which I’m grateful for as good reminders only a true and genuinely concerned friend would share.
Last July 17 at 4 p.m., during the book launching rites of ex-President Fidel V. Ramos at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City, President Duterte in extemporaneous remarks half-jokingly described FVR as his No. 1 supporter as well as his No. 1 critic. Duterte added that he encourages the former president to continue criticizing him.
After the President greeted well-wishers and departed on a helicopter, I kidded FVR, saying I was amazed the often tardy Duterte arrived to his book launch on time. The 89-year-old Ramos grabbed my right hand to squeeze it tightly and replied with a wide grin: “Do you know why Digong arrived on a chopper? So he could eskapo.”
Ex-President Ramos also bantered with me and reminisced about Duterte whom he first met many years ago in the problematic Agdao area of Davao City, when Ramos was still head of the Philippine Constabulary. He told me that he was already then impressed with the character and sincerity of Digong Duterte.
Although Duterte told us that Ramos differs from him in background, being a military man, he was right in saying that both of them have the same passionate love for the Philippines.
Despite Ramos having been educated at West Point Military Academy and known in the past as pro-American while Duterte has consistently been a nationalist, a former student activist who has charted a bold independent foreign policy for the Philippines, I encourage Duterte to continuously heed the candid views of this wise elder statesman.
Madeleine Albright
ALBRIGHT ON ‘A VERY
ACTIVE MAN WITH A LOUD SPEAKER’ & ‘RULE OF LAW’
Last July 19, thanks to the invitation of the ANC Leadership Forum organized by ABS-CBN’s ANC cable TV channel led by chief operating officer Cilette Liboro at Sofitel Manila, former US Secretary of State Dr. Madeleine Albright gave an interesting speech and engaged in a lively open forum moderated by topnotch broadcaster Karen Davila.
Perhaps it was her veteran diplomatic skills, or maybe the presence in the Sofitel Ballroom of Duterte loyalists like Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and presidential spokesman Secretary Ernesto Abella, but Albright deftly avoided open, direct criticisms of President Duterte, unlike other American politicos.
A former envoy to the United Nations and America’s first female Secretary of State under President Bill Clinton, Albright has a well-known practice of wearing pins and brooches to signal her moods and views on foreign counterparts. What pin would she wear if she met Duterte? Her reply was innocuous and frank: “I think I’d wear the pin of a very active man with a loudspeaker.”
In the open forum, university professor Dr. Albright deftly navigated questions from pre-selected guests, avoiding direct attacks on President Duterte, whom not a few in the Western media and Western politicos have criticized for alleged human rights failings in his draconian, controversial but still popular war on illegal drugs.
Albright wisely chose not to comment on domestic internal politics of foreign countries, but when asked about foreign investment prospects for the Philippines, she repeatedly mentioned the need to uphold “the rule of law.”
‘Do not criticize your president while you are abroad’
Albright described Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s late father President Hafez Al-Assad, whom she had personally met. “Assad called himself a lion, but (he) had the temperament of a mule.” I wonder what her colorful descriptions would be of Duterte if they’d meet, because Digong acts as a perfect gentleman in front of even female adversaries like the late 2016 presidential poll rivals Miriam Defensor Santiago and Senator Grace Poe or Vice President Leni Robredo.
On Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Duterte and many Asians admire for strong leadership, Albright said: “He is smart, he is mean, a KGB agent. I met him several times. He sees himself now as a mega force.”
When asked about America’s President Donald Trump, Dr. Albright responded: “One of the rules of a diplomat: do not criticize your president while you are abroad.” However, in subsequent questions on other topics, Albright expressed disagreement with the current US government’s drastic shift towards more protectionist and more anti-immigrant policies.
When twice asked about Duterte’s bold reform of charting a truly independent foreign policy for the Philippines as an equidistant friend to all the world’s big powers including the US, she stressed the importance of bilateral American-Philippine ties but added: “Every country has the right to set their own foreign policy to suit their interests.”
Albright also said there shouldn’t be any military conflict in the seas of Asia and that the world can prosper in a win-win scenario if America’s archrival China continues to progress. She also cited the Philippines’ “important mediation role” in Asia due to our being this year’s chairman of ASEAN, “by its location and also by the dynamic aspect of its people.”
President Duterte, there are some hopelessly negative critics who just want to destabilize your government and effect regime change out of political venom, but there are also good, sensible critics whom you should listen to and be challenged by to continuously become a better leader.
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