Wrong attention

We continue to hear, since the last few days, reports of the possible resignation of President Rodrigo Duterte. In few fora and to our collective raised eyebrows, Duterte himself said so. This is unprecedented in Philippine history. No president ever startled people with resignation.

Duterte’s pronouncements generated animated discussion. Resignation is very serious business. Vacating an office that 16 million people gifted him with is not to be trifled with, especially that he laced his supposed intention to resign with unconstitutional conditions.

Let me say that I do not believe Duterte will resign. When, few days ago, he opened his mouth to interject us with “resignation,” I could not discern any intention of his leaving. I only noticed his figurative play on words. He touched our sensibilities by alerting us that he will do the unimaginable. But, if we analyze his statement, we come face-to-face with a legal fact that he cannot do it. So he said something he knew he could not do.

The Constitution provides the manner of succession of office. Duterte, a lawyer, knows this. The vice president succeeds the president who resigns. According to Duterte, Vice President Leni Robredo is incompetent to run the government. The presidency should not be entrusted to her. The announced message of resignation is therefore abundantly clear although Duterte omits to say equally clearly that he is not resigning. This is worse than double talk.

As we must admit, this topic of presidential resignation has also engaged citizens on a side issue. We tend to speculate that Duterte’s preference for a Marcos to succeed him as president is a signal to the Presidential Electoral Tribunal to let Bongbong Marcos win the contested vice presidential election.

There are sectors who harp on a military junta to succeed Duterte should he really resign. Again, this is an extension discussion anent the supposed incompetence of Robredo. We are thus enthused in searching for alternatives to the point of forgetting what is written in our fundamental law. In other words, apropos to the resignation issue, our attention is riveted on who, as insinuated by Duterte, might succeed him.

Let us rewind what was reported in the days before this resignation thing erupted. Illegal drugs were imported from abroad and passed under the nose of the Bureau of Customs. The reports pegged the value at something like P6 billion. It disappeared like smoke. A succeeding importation of a lower value got caught. It was also estimated to have a street value of over P4 billion. Pray tell me, is there a crazy businessman who would risk importing illegal drugs worth P10 billion pesos to a country whose president has declared war against illegal drugs unless he has the protection of the powers that be?

In every opportunity that Duterte has, he always commends his policemen who kill drug pushers. He even promoted some policemen accused of killing a prisoner in jail! That is Duterte’s number one priority. But, I heard no anger from Duterte on the failure of authorities to nab the billion pesos in smuggled drugs. Instead, he stirred us into thinking about his resignation. Why do I sense our attention is being misdirected?