Change vs continuity

The non-politicians behind 1Sambayan are getting flak supposedly for being elitist and having their head in the clouds. But I’m actually sensing hints of change in the way the opposition might frame the battle in 2022.

First there was Vice President Leni Robredo, telling her supporters that inclusion is important, that they aren’t the only ones who are good, and they should understand why President Duterte is so popular.

Then there’s her vice chairman in the Liberal Party (LP), Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, saying opposition candidates need not necessarily be anti-Duterte.

What does this make of former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, applicant for president, who says the opposition standard bearer will have to be anti-Duterte and so has ruled out someone like Sen. Panfilo Lacson?

Drilon told us on One News’ “The Chiefs” Wednesday night that the LP has not discussed the possibility of supporting Trillanes, a member of the Magdalo group, in case Robredo decides not to run and 1Sambayan instead picks the former Navy officer.

At this point, Drilon said, the LP is simply giving its full support to Robredo and whatever her political plans might be for 2022.

Like LP president Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, Drilon sees no need to rush Robredo into any decision – just as the administration is not rushing to announce its final tandem for the 2022 race.

The LP is not part of 1Sambayan, which deserves some credit for getting groups from left to right to unite for common aspirations. But the coalition can use more advisers on mass communication and marketing at the grassroots. A basic advice would be to pick a name that is simple to pronounce. People keep stumbling on the proper pronunciation for 1Sambayan.

Beyond strong name recognition for the coalition, Robredo’s message of inclusion deserves to be considered.

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Apparently heeding his own advice, Drilon avoided any direct condemnation of President Duterte’s role in the deaths of thousands in the brutal war on drugs.

Drilon also skirted questions on whether the International Criminal Court (ICC) probe of Duterte’s war on drugs would be an issue that would be significant enough to influence the 2022 elections.

Human rights issues including the alleged death squads in Davao were hurled against Duterte in the 2016 campaign… and Filipinos gave him a landslide victory.

The same issues were raised in the 2019 midterm polls, and administration candidates shut out the opposition in the Senate race.

As I have written, voting trends indicate that Filipinos are willing to see certain civil liberties curtailed in the name of peace and order. And they believe the state has a right – even a duty – to use reasonable force against threats to public safety. The operative word, of course, is reasonable – something that the ICC believes has been lacking in Duterte’s war on drugs.

The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber has 120 days to approve the request of its newly retired chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda for judicial authorization to investigate allegations that crimes against humanity have been committed in Duterte’s bloody campaign against the drug menace.

That deadline runs smack into the period for the filing of certificates of candidacy for the upcoming elections, and any probe is sure to drag on through 2022.

Drilon said while the LP will always support human rights, the opposition should offer not just criticism of the current administration, but solutions.

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A clear, viable to-do list of how the opposition standard bearer can make life better for the majority of Filipinos would be a good tack.

Surely there are many measures that can be presented to improve governance. Filipinos across all income levels want speedy and efficient delivery of government services.

These days there’s a lot of public frustration that can be traced to a disastrous pandemic response, right from Day One when we rolled out the red carpet for the country’s COVID Patients 1 and 2 straight out of the Chinese city of Wuhan, origin of the coronavirus.

This year we also put out the welcome mat for every imaginable infectious COVID variant from all over the planet, leading to the killer surge that began in March and is now spreading outside Metro Manila.

The mediocre pandemic response is reflected in the common prognosis of multilateral agencies as well as analysts in major investment houses and think tanks, that the Philippines will be the regional laggard in post-COVID recovery. Our country is again being increasingly painted as the sick man of Asia.

Yesterday’s report was that the Philippines had slipped seven notches in the World Competitiveness Ranking 2021 drawn up by the Switzerland-based Institute for Management Development. It was the country’s worst ranking in five years and was the sharpest drop in the Asia Pacific. And it was attributed by the IMD to the economic fallout from a poor pandemic response.

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To this day we still don’t even have a reliable COVID contact tracing app. StaySafe.PH is a joke, and human contact tracers are pitifully few.

The steep cost of RT-PCR testing is keeping many people from getting tested until they have infected many others. It is also derailing efforts to revive tourism, with travelers resorting to fake swab test results.

As for quarantine, there are complaints about lousy facilities especially outside Metro Manila. Duterte can’t even get Cebu province to obey his order to follow quarantine and testing protocols for inbound travelers set by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Infectious Diseases.

The surge is over (for now) in Metro Manila, but it is spreading rapidly in other areas across the country, claiming more lives. Reports this week from several provinces said that because of lousy quarantine accommodations, recovering COVID patients are refusing to transfer from ICU care to isolation areas outside hospitals, so critical care facilities are running out.

With vaccination so inadequate and borders still largely open, health experts warn that the surge can always return to Metro Manila, leading to fresh lockdowns.

Considering the tragic devastation the pandemic has wreaked on lives, livelihoods and lifestyles, there’s profound public misery that the opposition can tap into for selling change rather than continuity in 2022.

But change must be spelled out with clarity, with solid and doable proposals for making lives better.