So many reviews have been made, in both traditional and social media, of the first 100 days of the Duterte administration.
In many of the “leading” purveyors of traditional media, the bias shows. They haven’t accepted the fact that the candidate they did not support, and in fact, ridiculed during the campaign, was elected by a huge majority of 16.6 million Filipinos, with a commanding lead of some 7 million over the next competitor.
Now they say the usual “honeymoon” period between the presidency and the public he serves, particularly media, is over. As if to presage more criticism, if not condemnation of the ways of his leadership.
At the prodding of the noisy minority, the international media has likewise gone overboard in raking Duterte over the coals for his “vulgarity,” and his bloody war against drugs, calling him a human rights violator, the latest being the French newspaper Liberation’s appellation of him as a “serial killer” of a president.
What honeymoon was there ever? Not in his first 100 days; not even in his first 30.
So what should Duterte do? How should he react?
I say, don’t mind the jeering. Just move on, and do what you must do.
Nobody ever thought the warnings of Duterte the candidate about the extent of the drug menace during the campaign was as true as he pictured. They thought it was the usual campaign exaggeration, forgivable during the political season. But when he became president, and even before he officially took over, the number of those who surrendered and were registered as “users” though many were “pushers” boggled the mind of the ordinary citizen. Ganun pala kadami? Ganito na pala kalala ang droga?
Which is why amid the cacophony of human rights activists complaining about the body count, echoed most prominently by foreign media, by and large the Filipino people cheered on. Suddenly crime on their streets waned. Suddenly they felt safer. So why the hell should they care what other people and bleeding hearts exclaim?
This is not to say that our President is entirely without blame for all the flak he has been getting. He pledged to temper his language once he assumed the presidency. He has not. Largely because he cannot temper the “cri de coeur” about his hatred for those who are destroying entire generations of his people.
Many of his own followers wish they would hear him speak out his angry thoughts in more “elegant” language. But having seen him up close during the past year or so, I trust in his own sense of timing. That will come.
But let not the West judge him by their own mores or standards. Many in the affluent West believe that civilization began with them and continues to evolve by their norms and measures.
They put too much premium on individual rights while Orientals believe the good of the community should always be paramount over and above individual rights.
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Now that a great measure of success has been achieved on the law and order front, and progress is finally being felt on the peace initiatives with both the Left and our Muslim brothers, maybe it is time to shift the focus of everyone’s attention to a new narrative.
That narrative should be about the economic plans and programs of the Duterte government. That narrative should be about how it intends to create more jobs and livelihood opportunities for the poor. That narrative should be about how the new leadership will address the woeful inadequacy of our infrastructure. That narrative should be about how the new government shall address massive poverty and better the lives of the least among us.
The President will embark on three major trips within the next two weeks: Brunei, China and Japan.
Great attention is focused on the trip to China, a refreshing change from the icy-cold relations the previous government had plunged our bilateral relations with our giant neighbor into.
If the economic relations between our countries warm up, and the bilateral talks between our heads of state produce tangible benefits for the Philippines, as hopefully the same could be achieved by the visit to Japan and forthcoming visits to other countries, then people would realize that the President is right by redefining our foreign policy directions from one that incessantly touts our special relations with America, to one of genuine independence.
Trite though it may sound, the best foreign policy is one where our country is friend to all and enemy to none.
