The late Ramon Magsaysay (who was president from Dec. 30, 1953 to March 17, 1957) defined what makes for a good president. “The President should set the example of a big heart, an honest mind, sound instincts, the virtue of healthy impatience and an abiding love for the common man.”
Rodrigo Roa Duterte, 72, has these attributes—a big heart, an honest mind, sound instincts, the virtue of healthy impatience, and an abiding love for the common man, in great abundance, not only as a president, but as a lawyer, as a public servant, and as a common man.
He is pro-people. He offers free tuition in college starting 2018. That will cost government P50 billion additionally yearly. He has told miners to shut down or pay higher taxes.
When squatters invaded more than 5,000 housing units in Bulacan for policemen and soldiers, instead of sending riot troops, he allowed the “invaders” to keep the houses. But they were told not to do it again.
He has gone after oligarchs. And shamed once-untouchable media empires like The Inquirer and ABS-CBN. He told their owners to pay their taxes and their loans (if any) to government banks.
Those who get his goat are threatened with removal from office or impeachment. Hence, the current troubles of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista, and Human Rights chief Chito Gascon. The stern message: Cooperate—or else. He is probably behind the release, on bail, of former Senator Jinggoy Estrada, jailed for more than three years for alleged plunder, a non-bailable offense.
As to an honest mind, Duterte, a lawyer, former prosecutor and Davao mayor of 23 years, readily telegraphs what he plans to do even before he can work out the details. He says he will resign if found to be corrupt. The police can shoot his son if found to be engaged in illegal drugs.
Duterte announced early on he would go after drug lords and drug addicts. The result has been a spate of celebrated killings—of drug lords like the mayor of Albuera, Leyte, Rolando Espinosa on Nov. 5, 2016, killed while under police detention, and the mayor of Ozamiz, Misamis Occidental province, Reynaldo Parojinog Sr. and 14 others inside his house on July 30, 2017. A notorious Iloilo drug lord Melvin “Boyet” Odicta Sr. and his wife were killed after embarking from a passenger ship on Aug. 29, 2016.
The police admit to killings more than 2,000 others as suspects in the state’s illegal drugs war.
Why the intense focus on drugs? Duterte explained it in his Second State of the Nation Address last July 24. He said:
“I believed then, as I believe still, that progress and development will sputter if criminals, illegal drugs, illegal users of drugs are allowed to roam the streets freely, victimizing seeming with impunity, the innocent and the helpless. Worse yet, there were times in the past when the protectors of the people were themselves the perpetrators of the very crimes they were tasked to prevent or suppress. It is ironic as it is madness.”
“The economy surges only when there is peace and order prevailing in places where investors can pour their capital and expertise. I have learned from my experience in Davao City that investor confidence [is] bolstered and fortified only if a potent force and mechanism for protection of local and foreign investments are in place.”
Clearly, Duterte conflates drugs with peace and order, development, and economic growth. He has staked his honor, his life, his presidency in exchange for victory over the drug lords.
“I have resolved that no matter how long it takes, the fight against illegal drugs will continue because that is the root cause of so much evil and so much suffering that weakens the social fabric and deters foreign investments from pouring in. The fight will be unremitting as it will be unrelenting,” the President vowed in his SONA.
“Businessmen have really no complaints about President Duterte’s honesty and transparency,” says Jose “Titoy” Pardo, the chairman of the Philippine Stock Exchange. He says he has talked to tycoons like Ramon Ang [of San Miguel] and Manny Pangilinan [of PLDT and Meralco] and they could not complain about corruption at the top. His cabinet are competent and have integrity.” “But the lower levels of the bureaucracy, there is corruption,” Pardo confides.
At the grassroots, Pardo notes, “people seem to accept the killings in the drugs war. Lawlessness is gone. The drive keeps us peaceful.”
Indeed, despite complaints about the rising number of killings, Duterte job approval and popularity ratings remain sky high—a gratifying 82 percent, and rising, not falling.
The Duterte administration has embarked on a massive P8 trillion to P9 trillion infrastructure program called “Build, Build, Build”. The money will help finance no less than 75 infrastructure projects, 53 of which will cost P1.579 trillion.
“Build, Build, Build” will create 1.5-million jobs, raise government infra spending to 5 percent of GDP, modernize the economy, boost economic growth to 7-8 percent yearly, rescue eight million Filipinos from poverty, reduce poverty from 21.6 percent today to 14 percent by 2022, and make the Philippines a high middle income country by the end of Duterte’s presidency when Filipinos are expected to have a per capita income of $5,000, in current dollars.
The Duterte administration is also reforming taxation. It will require the rich to pay more in taxes (on the diesel and gasoline they use, on the cars they buy, on sugar they consume, and on their assets and income). The poor, or those who earn P250,000 or less a year, will not pay any income taxes.
Annual additional revenues from the so-called TRAIN—Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion designed by Albay Rep. Joey Salceda—will be P133.8 billion in the first year, rising to P269.9 billion by 2022.
The Senate has no choice but endorse Duterte’s tax bill, in full.