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Friday, March 29, 2024

Waking

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That was a pretty loud wake-up call for the President in the latest Social Weather Stations quarterly poll conducted last Sept. 23-27.

His net “satisfaction” rating registered at +48, or 18 points below his +66 net rating in the previous survey last June 23-26. That was enough to drop him from “very good” to “good” status. His net “trust” rating likewise declined to +60, a 15-point drop below his +75 rating in June, but still high enough to keep him in the “very good” category.

There were only two demographics where he stayed steady: in his bailiwick region of Mindanao, and among the “ABC” crowd, where net satisfaction dropped by just 2 points. The latter finding probably shouldn’t surprise us, since it was mainly among the masa of “D” and “E” that SWS last June found that seven out of 10 Filipinos fear becoming victims of EJK.

We can only speculate about the other reasons for the drop in ratings until SWS comes out with the rest of its findings. The two major survey groups like to do this, stretching out the publicity for their findings like a striptease. However, a string of cumulative bad news only exaggerates negative impressions. This may be great for marketing, but less so for non-partisan reporting, popular morale, and public policy.

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Any decline in the credibility of the head of state and government can only be bad news for everyone, regardless of your politics—unless that leader is so irretrievably bad that nothing he’s done could be worth saving. And no matter how much Duterte’s ratings have dropped, I’m willing to bet that few, if any, would make such an extreme claim about him today.

One thing worth saving is comprehensive tax reform, which is now being whittled down into unrecognizable form by the honorable senators. Without it, you can forget about all the new infrastructure that Duterte wants to build—unless you’re willing to bury yourself in more debt to finance it. That initiative is now at risk because of low ratings.

Another initiative worth saving is Charter change. This will not only be about federalism, about which many people concededly still have misgivings. Just as important, it will also be about opening up our economy to more foreign investment and becoming more competitive against our neighbors. Senator Franklin Drilon himself, who’s no friend of Duterte, has already worried aloud about the 90-percent drop in direct foreign investment, year on year, for the first half of this year. This is another reform now at risk because of the President’s low ratings.

Securing the peace, especially in Mindanao, is a third mandate of his that is now in jeopardy. Passage of an acceptable Bangsamoro basic law is now farther out of reach. If ISIS were to renew its offensive in Mindanao, it would be more difficult for Duterte to convince Congress to keep martial law in place there, no matter how terrible those renewed attacks might be. Perhaps nothing short of an assault on Metro Manila would be enough to convince the naysayers.

On the other hand, if these scenarios were exactly what the promoters of destabilization had in mind, then they’re getting what they wanted. And debasement of the people’s trust and confidence in the President is a great step in the direction they want to take the country.

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“Waking” is a familiar word for which I’d like to coin a new meaning: Going to one funeral wake after another, practically back to back. It’s a custom that’s quite familiar to people in my age group, for whom the list of people waiting for us on the other side just keeps getting longer.

Just from the last three days, let me cull the following names whom I was privileged to get to know personally, and for whom I request the devout reader’s prayers:

Dobbit Palacios—PMA class of ’72, brother and husband of schoolmates of mine at UP High. “Celebration of his life” on Friday 4 p.m. at Stella Strada on Katipunan.

Erick San Juan—possibly the dean of hard-core investigative journalism in this country, a man who always knew about the unlikeliest news tidbits from the unlikeliest sources. Wake starting tonight at Heritage Park in Taguig.

Washington Sycip—the grand old man of Philippine business. I remember, decades ago, offering to drive him back to his hotel from a Manhattan evening reception, an invitation he quickly accepted, I suspect, as much for the opportunity to save on cab fare as for the comfort of the ride.

Malyn Veluz—one of the Veluz siblings, fixtures in the radical student movement of the seventies, where the beauty of the sisters was as well-known as the rowdiness of the brothers. Wake details pending.

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Less morbidly, let me wish my fraternity brothers in UP Alpha Sigma a grand 55th anniversary celebration tonight.

This year the hot topics for us are refurbishing the bus we donated years ago to UP athletes through the generosity of our one and only “honorary brod” Manny (MVP) Pangilinan ‘12; putting an official end to physical initiation; building new chapters in the other, smaller campuses of UP; and confederating in some fashion with non-UP fraternities who sport the same name and ideals.

Readers can write me at gbolivar1952@yahoo.com.

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