President Rodrigo Duterte is fighting a war on many fronts.
He is not only trying to finish off the remnants of the Maute group and Abu Sayyaf in Marawi City who seem to be clinging to a 15-hectare piece of real estate but also a resurgent Communist Party of the Philippines/ New People’s Army that have been targeting individual soldiers and policemen. They just burned a warehouse and several industrial equipment in Mindanao.
On the political front, the President continues to do battle with his fiercest critic, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who has been relentless in his attacks on him and his family. His conflict with the senator has now spilled over to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and the feisty Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales. He wants the two to be impeached—Chief Justice Sereno for corruption and lavish lifestyle and Ombudsman Morales for selective justice.
On our economy, although it continues to grow as projected, the peso continues to weaken and is the worst-performing currency in Asia. Foreign Direct Investments also have gone down by 90 percent in spite of press releases to the contrary. It seems that foreign companies prefer to locate to other countries like Vietnam and Cambodia rather than here.
All these issues would be taxing enough for a younger man but even more so to a 72-year-old who has admitted to having some health issues.
To top it all, his stratospheric satisfaction and trust ratings have gone down precipitously. All these months, he has basically been able to say and do whatever he wanted, confident in the knowledge that the public has always supported him. This support has now weakened considerably. It still good but not as it used to be.
This can be interpreted in many ways depending on whose side of the aisle one belongs. For administration supporters, this is to be expected because the high and lows of public perception is cyclical. They are of course right. Besides, the rating is still good and his support among the ABC classes which is very important is still rock solid. It hardly moved. Mindanao is also still overwhelming supportive.
To his critics, however, this is the beginning of a downward trend which will only continue if the administration does not change gears. It remains to be seen however, how the President will react to the survey results. But it is safe to say that the happiest person right now must be Senator Trillanes. He must be congratulating and saying to himself that all the things that he has been doing are starting to pay off.
Is the public beginning to believe the corruption issues labelled against the President and his family? Is it the killing of Kian who pleaded for his life but still apparently killed by the police?
The next survey, either by the SWS or Pulse Asia, should provide a clearer picture of how the public views some of these lingering issues. But if Senator Trillanes remains true to form, he and his allies will take advantage of the SWS survey to redouble their efforts to go on the offensive against the President. Whatever one thinks about the senator, he has at least shown that he is not afraid of the President. Other critics of the President are careful on what to say but not Senator Trillanes. He says whatever he wants to say and this maybe unnerving the President which causes him to make mistakes. The invented Singapore bank accounts which the President himself admitted as simply a figment of his imagination was a point for Senator Trillanes. His refusal to sign a bank waiver may also be another point.
Another issue that the public should bear in mind is whether to support to the desire of the President to impeach both Chief Justice Sereno and Ombudsman Morales. Maybe the two ladies should just have accepted the challenge of the President that they resign simultaneously. Had this happened, VP Leni Robredo would be president now and who knows, it may be possible for both ladies to be reappointed back to their positions but perhaps this possibility was never considered by the two and simply chose to tough it out and face whatever is coming.
Two impeachment trials, however, would take a long time and would be quite a distraction. Instead of the government concentrating its time to rebuilding Marawi City and other important problems like the Metro Manila traffic, economy and repairing our international reputation which has taken a hit because of our brutal war on drugs, the public will again be riveted to two long impeachment trials.
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It is hard to understand why the Philippine National Police leadership allowed the Quezon City Police District to go ahead with the Barangay drop box program. It basically allows anyone to accuse anybody of drug user or drug dealing anonymously. The Police said that every information will be fairly validated, but this is another recipe for abuse. The Commission on Human Rights has rightfully said so and is right.
This practice of accusing people anonymously is being practiced widely in government. In fact as far as I know, the office of the Ombudsman also entertains anonymous complaints. And this is the reason why it is hard to understand why the PNP also wants to follow the practice considering that Police personnel are often times the victims of anonymous complaints.
Government officials from other agencies are also victims. It is so difficult or down right impossible to defend oneself from malicious and false accusations coming from anonymous sources. The Police should be discouraging this bad practice instead of following it.