Which friend to visit first: China or the US?

IF BOTH Beijing and Washington open their doors and roll out the red carpet for a state visit of Philippine President Rody Duterte after his June 30 inauguration, which door should he take first?

Publicists of the United States have disclosed plans to invite Duterte to a state visit to Washington after the winner in the US presidential election this Nov. 8 is inaugurated in January next year.

This is part of a high-impact campaign to massage the ego of the new Philippine leader and earn his goodwill. There are also reported plans to give top-level briefings to Duterte and key Filipino officials on South China Sea issues and the US pivot to the Asia-Pacific area.

No similar state visit plans have leaked out of Beijing, but if China wants to steal a march on its rival, President Xi Jinping can welcome Duterte anytime during the six months before a new US president can warm his/her seat in the Oval Office.

In a message to Duterte after his proclamation last Monday, President Xi expressed hopes that China-Philippine relationship be revived despite the South China Sea dispute.

“A friendly, stable and sound China-Philippines relationship is in the fundamental interests of the two countries and their people,” Xi said. “We hope the two sides can work together to bring bilateral relations back on a healthy track.”

Duterte has said he would talk directly with China to resolve bilateral issues if they remain in the first two years of his administration. Such a move is contrary to US advice to use the multilateral voice of friends in the region.

Meantime, a ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration under the United Nations is being awaited on a Philippine case against China’s nine-dash line claim over the disputed area.

Preventing the dispute from ruining the totality of Philippine-China relations requires consummate skills from the new President and his envoys and strategists. Duterte must steer his small country out of the way of the contending superpowers both of which are its friends.

• Spartan lifestyle awaits Duterte Cabinet

PRESIDENT-ELECT Duterte himself had to spell out how he wants people dealing with government spared from queuing, their being given a receipt and an assurance of action in 72 hours, the need for computers to speed up the process, et cetera.

These are administrative details that lower officials can lay down for the Chief Executive – not vice versa – so he can focus on macro concerns. But the Davao mayor is probably making sure he gets the micro results that he wants after he makes the quantum leap to Malacañang.

People who are used to the pomp and formalities of power may have been befuddled by the televised getting-to-know-you meeting in Davao City last Tuesday of the incoming president and his official family, all in mufti and crowded informally around a long table.

That first “Cabinet” meeting held in a DPWH guesthouse gave a hint of the mayor’s simple executive style. It was also a preview of what could be a Spartan lifestyle of officials in keeping with Section 1 of Article XI (Accountability of Public Officers) which says:

“Public office is a public trust. Public officers and employees must, at all times, be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency; act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.”

Having personally screened his Cabinet choices, Duterte vouched for their integrity, honesty and competence.

Even as a “Malacañang of the South” is emerging, it has been observed that a number of those in the early list of Cabinet and other ranking officials are from Mindanao. Some of them are:

Former South Cotabato Gov. Mike Sueño (DILG secretary), former Davao City police officer and PNP-SAF head Catalino Cuy (DILG undersecretary), retired general and former police chief for Southern Mindanao Jaime Morente (Immigration commissioner), former Davao City Police Chief Isidro Lapeña (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency chief), and NBI regional director for Southern Mindanao Dante Gierran (NBI director).

• Rody rides on anti-corruption emotion

AFTER introducing his Cabinet and other officials, Duterte followed through in a press conference with his usual attack on drugs, corruption and criminality – the crisis that moved more than 16 million Filipinos who hardly knew him to vote for him.

“It can only mean that there is a message that people do not want corruption,” he said. “They do not want their money put in the pockets of workers of government.”

“I will be harsh. I will be harsh. Basta corruption, I will be harsh,” he stressed, saying that government personnel who fail to act within 72 hours on applications filed with them will have to explain.

On the sale of Temporary Restraining Orders (TROs) whose indiscriminate issuance by corrupt judges has stymied legitimate government projects, Duterte said he would send an emissary to the Supreme Court, an independent branch, to stop the practice.

“TRO nang TRO. The TRO simply means money for the judges,” he said. “When I certify (a project) as president, when everything is OK, if I give the go-signal, there is no corruption. No money changed hands there.”

Duterte has not relented on his shoot-to-kill orders on drug lords and pushers who fight back. He plans to put up a reward system for those who hunt down drug dealers, the bounty ranging from P50,000 to P3 million.

“The order is ‘dead or alive’… If they raise their hands, alive. If they fight back, dead,” he said. “I could go as far as maybe 100 persons dead.”

He disclosed having told the incoming NBI director that if one of his agents is found to be involved in drug deals, ‘I want you to kill him personally. I want you to do the killing.’

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