Here’s the critics’ story. Last Friday, an unlikely alliance of anti-Duterte forces of all shades ranging from what remains of the once-all powerful Liberal Party to organizations belonging to the National Democratic Front and other journeymen denounced the administration’s perceived failures and what they termed its dictatorial tendencies.
To be very clear, going by their statements and calls before, during and after the affair, at bottom, the glue holding this disparate aggrupation is their dislike for Duterte and his continued stay in Malacanang. No matter how they try to couch it, their very language, body or otherwise, their very actions, on the march or elsewhere, is decidedly aimed at ousting Duterte from office before his term. It is clear they cannot abide by his presence and the possibility of his finishing his term.
Never mind that he was elected by an overwhelming mandate of more than 16 million votes, five million more than his closest opponent.
Never mind that he is trying his deliver on his promises. during the campaign. Never mind that up to now he remains the most trusted official of the land and, despite some hiccups on the road, has very good approval ratings. Never mind that in the most recent SWS survey, a majority of our people now feel safer in the streets and in their homes, a key administration achievement if you ask me given the negative campaign launched by the usual suspects to highlight the alleged abuses under this administration. Never mind that despite all such claims of abuses and persecution, not a single leader of this alliance of anti-Duterte forces has been haled to jail for calling him names or calling for his ouster midway into his term.
But what is really galling is the extraordinary effort of these groups to tie up President Duterte to the late President Ferdinand Marcos on all kinds of misdeeds and charges as if these are the only things which happened or are happening, in the case of President Duterte, during their watch. As if nothing good has come out of their stay in office. One group asked anyone who cared to listen to “resist alliance of tyrants” referring to the trio of President Duterte, Speaker GMA and former senator Bongbong Marcos.
To make matters worse, as these groups denounced this so-called alliance of tyrants and proceeded to call for their banishment from the face of the earth, in a manner of speaking, they are mockingly calling
President Duterte in particular to “provide leadership and work towards the unity of our people” they have also gone to town reminding one and all to “remain vigilant as the country’s democracy is again under threat” and “ensure that the economy will not be destroyed as it was under martial law” It is these hypocritical noises repeated through decades of retelling half truths which have to be exposed before it gets embedded in the national consciousness.
If we are to be fair and objective about what happened and what is happening right now, those reported abuses and alleged dictatorial tendencies remains the critics’ narrative. It is their reading of events and developments during the watch of both Presidents Duterte and Marcos. It is the critics’ truth – not the whole truth. It is a biased and highly subjective recounting of things.
Yes, there were human rights violations then as there were in all administrations after Marcos. There are reports of human rights violations today. Yes, there was a concentration of power during martial law as there were efforts, despite the separation of powers in all of our modern-day Constitution, in all administrations after Marcos to get the entire government machinery to work in step towards a common objective. Whether that objective was to denounce the Marcoses’ abuses to high heavens no matter how (continuing to this day) or to bring to light then President Cory’s last-minute resolve to hold on to the US bases in Clark and Subic or to then President Ramos’ effort to effect privatization and liberalization of the economy or then President Estrada’s all-out war in the South or then President GMA’s effort to reenergize the economy with VAT and other measures and, of course, former President Noynoy’s desire to oust then Ombudsman Mercy Gutierrez and then Chief Justice Renato Corona. Under this kind of presidential system there will always be efforts by the executive to take on power for a specific goal given the need and circumstances at the time.
But this effort to concentrate, this instinct to try to silence dissent which could lead to abuses and bouts of misrule is not the entire story of any presidency. There will always be good and bad things happening during a term resulting from presidential action. But these should be put in context and properly reported or given the chance to see the light to complete the whole. Unfortunately for all of us and for our efforts to bring closure to the ‘battles of the past’, President Duterte’s critics as are Presidents Marcos and GMA have chosen only those they deem fit and necessary to oust or shame a sitting President.
Not to tell the whole story. Not to build from the good things which were done in the course of time. Not to situate their criticisms of the past on the events and circumstances of that particular period but to pick and chose which part of that past suits their fancy. This unrelenting effort to throw blame, to denounce perceived enemies and undue effort to exact revenge for perceived hurts disregarding their very own axioms’ rule of law, giving due process and invoking innocence until proven guilty is what’s truly disappointing. This hypocritical and selective highlighting of things that were or are now under this administration, only the perceived misdeeds and not the good things is what has really set us back in our common desire to unify our people, learn from the lessons of the past and truly build a nation together.