Many questions have been asked in relation to President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs.
Have the people been so desensitized and apathetic to what is happening that there is no reaction at all to the killings?
Have they become deathly afraid of what President Duterte could do?
It appears that the people have accepted the reality of this bloody war. In fact, President Duterte continues to enjoy high trust and approval ratings.
Have we Filipinos gone so low in values that we simply accept these things?
It would seem so. Even the complaints of the religious here and abroad are being ignored by the majority of our people.
What’s happening to our country?
We should not underestimate the psychological effect of all this on our children. Are we breeding a generation of Filipinos that does not care that there are violence and lawlessness? What a tragedy!
Has the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines also been desensitized that it can no longer stop the killings that show we no longer value the dignity of human life?
Even a jaded journalist like me is alarmed by all these killings. Why are the daily murders now seen as ordinary? And there does not seem to be any real and credible opposition.
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The National Democratic Front, the political arm of the communist movement of the Philippines, is adopting the same strategy as the one it did with past administrations. This is an effort to make the Duterte government give them all they are asking for in the name of peace.
The communist rebels, waging the largest and longest insurgency in the ground, are growing restless on moves to a ceasefire as they have become frustrated in “government’s broken promises.”
The communist insurgents now have been reduced to a little more than 4,000 fighters from 26,000 in 1968 when the movement was at its peak. The late President Cory Aquino in 1986 decriminalized the communist movement.
Now, the communist rebels want Duterte to submit to their demands—like releasing all the communist rebels still in jail, numbering 434.
The NDF also wants Duterte to submit to all their economic and political demands.
Santa Banana, that would make Duterte unable to further negotiate with the communists. The rebels want to have their cake and eat it, too.
What the communist rebels are doing now as they go again to talk peace with the government panel, this time in Rome, Italy, is what they did with past governments. Duterte has already named several communists to his Cabinet. Now they want even more.
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Nine members of the Cabinet who were bypassed by the Commission on Appointments have been reinstated by the President. Their names have been resubmitted to the powerful congressional body.
I don’t know whom the commission will choose to confirm or reject. I do know that two secretaries should not be confirmed—Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Gina Lopez, and Health Secretary Evelyn Ubial.
Self-proclaimed environmentalist Lopez, for one, is a staunch anti-mining advocate, who has about killed the $360 billion mining industry with her power to issue Environmental Clearance Certificates and her authority to suspend mining firms that allegedly violated environmental rules and regulations. She uses, as her front, a known anti-mining NGO to inspect mining firms. To Lopez, it’s the environment above anything else.
In the case of the health secretary, she wants to impose what she believes in by distributing condoms to Grade 8 level of public school students, which is being opposed by conservatives. These high school students may just experiment with sex. She claims that those who don’t see things as she does should not impose what they believe on others.
But, Santa Banana, it is the health secretary imposing on others what she wants!
I believe sex education for high school students is enough. With parental guidance and high school education, fears of being victims of AIDS and HIV should be sufficient.
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The Miss Universe pageant provides some distraction from what’s going on the Philippines today. But when the candidates leave, we go back to our problems as well.
I am sure those responsible for the pageant being held in the Philippines will be gushing about the event. But, I ask: How will the holding of an international beauty contest solve our problems as a nation?