Live & leave them be

My birthday wish for President Rodrigo Duterte, who once jokingly told me he was born on Christmas Day, is that he finishes his term.

The President, elected with the most number of votes post-EDSA (16,601,997 votes) in a clean and honest election, has the mandate of the Filipino people to lead them. I may not have supported his presidential bid, and definitely do not agree with all his ways, but I would be stupid not to recognize that the man was the people’s choice to lead them and preside over their fate. And remains to be so. Even as I type the last period in this column.

I’ve lived through 10 coup attempts. The first was the bloodless 1986 EDSA people power revolution, and it was an uprising that ushered in democracy after 20 years of dictatorship. It was a template for many other freedom movements around the world.

But not all military upheavals usher in better times. EDSA was a godsend to the majority, I daresay, but not to all.

I served in the government of President Cory Aquino, and there were seven coup attempts to wrest power from her. Two of them were bloody — the 1987 and 1989 coup attempts — when even my own life was on the line. Just before the 1989 coup, President Aquino was on a state visit to the US and launched the Philippine Fund in New York. Our growth was over eight percent. And the day after the coup on Dec. 1, 1989, everything was lost, like a soap bubble pricked by a needle. The economy went south.

EDSA Dos in 2001 against President now Mayor Joseph Estrada was seen as a fight against corruption (remember Jose Velarde?) and the seeming attempt of his allies in the Senate to suppress the truth during his impeachment trial.

The two coup attempts against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, both erupting in the Makati Central Business District, disrupted the economy. After all, it wasn’t business as usual when mutineers take over five-star hotels.

So in the last 30 years, we’ve seen the Filipino people — or at least those with the might to effect change — testing the limits of democracy in order to change their President.

It’s about time we leave the President be.

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To be sure, the buck stops with President Duterte when it comes to extrajudicial killings in his war against drugs. He said it would be brutal and it is. The impeachment complaint filed against him is better than a coup attempt or any other means fair or foul. It’s a mechanism that allows people to seek a change in leadership in a constitutional manner. But must we seek to change Presidents again? Is it the solution?

Few of his supporters are disenchanted with Duterte at this point. Sen. Grace Poe once said Duterte is like “FPJ and Erap combined” when it comes to his mass appeal. As for those who didn’t support the Davao mayor in the May 2016 elections — many of them acknowledge now that his war against drugs has brought to the fore the severity of the drug problem that they didn’t know existed. It was a disease that was eating up society stealthily, like silent but deadly pneumonia. I see it particularly in the alleys that lead to the heart of Port Area. Once, after a fire that razed a curbside community there, they were all over the main streets — glassy-eyed, wobbling on their toes. Some teenaged boys were still clutching plastic bags, sniffing their future away.

Does the end justify the means?

My former boss, former Press Secretary Buddy Gomez openly shares the story of his son “J” who was actually imprisoned in Texas due to dangerous drugs. But “J” met a woman who inspired him to turn a new leaf. He will be graduating from medical school soon, with honors a few points shy of summa cum laude. He lived to tell his story of redemption.

We can and should disagree with the President (unless you serve in government at his pleasure), otherwise he will be like the emperor in the fairy tale, The Emperor’s New Clothes. And he should listen to those who disagree with him, even if he doesn’t want it to appear so for the sake of his strongman image.

But he should remain where he is, in the seat of power. He was put there by 16,601,997 people who were not coerced to vote for him. Who knew exactly what he was like — a strongman, a flirt, a man who cusses in public. He didn’t pretend to be what he was not — that’s the difference between him and the fictional presidential candidate in the movie Our Brand Is Crisis. Quoting the political strategist played by Sandra Bullock in the same movie, when people like hope, they elect someone young and fresh. When they like stability, they go for someone strong and tested in crisis. The people knew exactly who they were voting into office when they wrote Duterte’s name on their ballot.

The economy doesn’t need another upheaval. Now, for example, you don’t want a popular senator to be your next President, start your campaign now. Be involved in voter education. Bring the qualities of the leader we need to the fore. Everybody has his own pulpit because of social media. Use it.

So that IF Mr. Popular Senator runs for President in 2022, people will know what or who they’re going to get. A female editor says she will migrate to New Zealand if he wins, and it might happen. And if people are disenchanted with him after he wins the presidency in clean and orderly elections...Ano, impeachment ulit?

Just saying.

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Leave Leni be. She won the vice presidential elections. She has the heart, the work ethic, and the brains for her job. I haven’t seen her report to the UN, but if she reported documented cases of abuse in the exercise of the law, don’t shoot the messenger. Remedy the situation in the message that is being reported.

At the end of the day, it’s the economy that’s going to give us a better life and a future to live for: “jobs and justice, food and freedom.” Houses and hope. So let’s take care of the goose that lays the golden egg — the economy.

Let’s not upset its nest and ruffle its feathers.

(You may e-mail me at [email protected].)