There are serious questions being raised about the fitness for office of United States President Donald Trump. In Washington, it’s not just the opposite sides of the political aisle, meaning among Democrats, that concerns are being expressed the man Americans elected to the White House might not be fit for the office.
Whatever is expressed here is not my opinion but those of leading members of Congress and the US media. Carl Bernstein, an internationally known journalist, in an interview with CNN, said Trump is unfit to be president.
There are Republicans who question Trump’s fitness but party loyalty prevents them from expressing the same sentiment. This is the long-standing two-party system in American politics. There is seldom a crossing of party lines, unlike here. Here, when our traditional politicians smell blood, they either switch sides or troop to Edsa to join People Power to call for the resignation of the president.
We have seen this happen with former Presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada. Their downfall was fast-tracked by politicians, Cabinet officials and high-ranking Armed Forces of the Philippines officers who defected to join the popular uprising against the two leaders.
Trump’s troubles actually started from Day One when he took his oath of office. Starting from his threat to break away from NATO, and refusal to sign the Paris accord on climate change, Trump also announced the building of a wall along its border with Mexico to “keep away those illegal immigrants, rapists and drug dealers.”
Then there was Trump’s pronouncement to ban immigrants and visa applicants from six Muslim countries because they sow terrorism on US soil.
Trump’s most recent gaffe was his conflicting statement on the racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. The violence was triggered by the plan of the white extremists to remove the monument of Gen. Robert E. Lee, the iconic leader of the Confederate southern states during the American civil war. Trump, instead of condemning the torch-bearing white supremacists and neo-Nazis during a rally that turned violent and killed one, said both sides were to blame for the incident. Surprisingly, conservative evangelists like Jerry Falwell supported Trump and said the President is not a racist. This is how divisive the Trump presidency is; it has turned Americans against each other.
If some of these outrageous statements and policy decisions sound familiar, there are sentiments in this country that voters might have elected the wrong man to the presidency. This is not my opinion but those of political observers who are evenly divided, with many approving of President Rodrigo Duterte’s relentless war on drugs despite wide-scale accusations of extrajudicial killings of drug suspects.
There has to be a tipping point on how the scale will go at some point. Will Digong will continue to gain support or will major players like the military or people in his own party deem it time to leave the President and his helter-skelter way of running the government?
Meanwhile, credit must be given to Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol on how he’s handling the bird flu outbreak in Pampanga. But despite his efforts and the culling of some 300,000 chicken layers, the bird flu has spread to the town of Jaen, Nueva Ecija. Apparently, there are a few poultry growers who were able to slip some of their diseased chicken out of Pampanga.
The bird flu outbreak has cost the poultry farmers millions of pesos in lost income. Thousands of workers in the industry have lost their jobs as the price of chicken in the market plummeted to an all-time low. Housewives who go to the market for food stay away from chickens even if these did not come from Pampanga. There is always the suspicion that some unscrupulous vendors are selling chicken that came from the affected area.
This fear of contacting avian flu has spiked the prices of beef, pork and seafood. To cushion the effect of the bird flu outbreak, the government is giving out P20,000 per farmer to tide them over the lean days.
After the culling of some 300,000 chickens, the DA and the Department of Health said it would take three months or 90 days before poultry farmers can start raising chickens again in San Luis, Pampanga. This is a good preventive measure to insure the non-recurrence of the dreaded disease.
The Department of Health has advised the people the chicken and eggs are still safe to eat as long as they are well cooked and no pink part is left after taken out of the fire.