"It is only political continuity that could bring about stability."
The latest gig among political aficionados is the idea of floating President Duterte to run for vice-president with his favorite subaltern, Senator Bong Go, now taking the cudgels of running for President. The idea was first sounded out by former presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo.
Running for vice president is neither illegal nor unconstitutional. But it is but unpalatable to the tableau of most political matchmakers, just as it does not rhyme with the political compass of drumbeaters who look at politics as their sort of pastime.
The other choice floated by those who cling to the political raft of the Duterte administration is Davao City mayor Sara Duterte, the daughter of the President.
Both are floated by these modern-day political kingmakers to assure themselves of continuity. In either case, they are the trusted pillars of the Duterte administration, but neither can claim responsibility for building the colorful political career of the incumbent president.
The dilemma on whether to allow the President to run for a second term all boils down to the political hypocrisy that originated in the ideology of the Cory Aquino government, the founder of our wobbly democracy. What that lamentable government did was to make her interpretation of democracy: That an elected President should strictly serve only for one term, as set by her theocratic political architects. To stay in office beyond the period stated in Section 4, Article VII is to violate the Constitution or to end up being accused as a dictator or an authoritarian.
More often, it is difficult to accomplish the projects and policies of the government given the time set by the Constitution. It was the phobia of that hypocritical regime that forced them to discard the time-honored principle that democracy is rooted on the choice of the people to elect their leader and not to their dictate how long he will stay in office.
Today, we see corrupt political leaders whose loyalty is not to the electorate but to the various interest groups that financed their candidacy. They make a political circus for the political gamblers to bet. Even projects designed to bring about development are shortcuts to accommodate the interest groups that allotted their capital to make sure that profit is generated. Even courts are dragged into this vicious form of corruption by their unbridled issuance of restraining orders to honest-to-goodness bidders on worthy projects that the President himself already voiced out his concern about this corruption in the judiciary.
Even in the reformatted ideology of socialism, it is now an accepted fact that it is not the period of time that makes a great leader but what he has accomplished for the people. It is this criterion on why Duterte is trying his best to unshackle the country from the various interest groups that retard progress and prosperity to our people.
Political aficionados opted to re-craft Section 4, Article VII of the Constitution to allegedly shower this country with a system of their dilapidated democracy. Instead, we only sank deeper into the sinkhole, with our election becoming a collector of political dregs and demagogues.
Gradually, the country deteriorated such that today we stand as a helpless mendicant ashamed to even assert our sovereignty and independence. Duterte as leader is now entrapped in that bogus democracy inoculated with that same virus of hypocrisy doing his best to re-craft the Constitution to allow him to continue his projects. Should he accept his fate of retiring all his projects will be thrown to waste in the name of political vengeance. Both his political enemies and errand-boys of foreign interest groups will be glad to see this legacy branded as grandiose and extravagance, just like that they did to the past administration.
As some political observers noted, the dilemma that now confronts the Duterte administration is not only a question of continuity but on how to make that continuity work and acceptable to our people. The Duterte administration should bear in mind that the process of consolidation, which many believe has not yet been attained, continues to gnaw at his government. The good-for-nothing and corrupt administration that pretends to be democratic has implanted the foundation to keep the country forever wobbly and begging for foreign interference.
His vice president, Leni Robredo and all those who surround her describe the Duterte government as murderous and authoritarian. She has nothing positive to say about the government where she draws her salary regularly; by some twist of fate she might just end up ruling this God-forsaken land. By then she would be the only President who continues to badmouth her country and its people. She has even managed to have a stooge in the judiciary to sustain her weird theory that what happened was an act of God to whitewash the massive electoral fraud she committed.
Yet, her accomplices in the on-going political swindling continue to denounce the Duterte administration for allegedly trying to suppress their right to freedom of expression. The operator of our dilapidated democratic system purposely chose to put her there to make it difficult for the Duterte administration to accomplish his projects; that in due time, will present her to the public as the reincarnation of our democracy. It is this clever trick of presenting an old rag to lure our people.
Even this member of the judiciary is helping discredit the Durterte administration. His success in this field could serve as a milestone in our political history. Classic was the failure of the Duterte administration to put a break to the magistrate who presented himself as omniscient in law forgetting the truth that his Bangsmoro Autonomous proposal was overwhelmingly rejected by the very court in which he now sits.
A choice in favor of that cheated vice president could have doubled his popularity. Alas, it seems that Duerte, at times, refuses to take on the current of history that is greatly working in his favor.
Re-crafting that provision to allow the President to run again is needed. It is not only constitutional that could cement that shaky legal foundation in our Constitution. It is only political continuity that could bring about stability. Even the most avid supporters of the Duterte administration are shaking their head and are asking: why Go or Sara? Go typifies that of a loyal subaltern which can easily be given a nasty connotation by the people. Could he not have chosen an alternate president to do the job for him?
Could it be Sara? While Duterte cannot be accused of nepotism in selecting a relative to an elective office, definitely Sarah already has a blot mask in her decision-making when she opted to pick Lord Allan Jay Velasco in lieu of Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano. Insiders feel that Duterte was betrayed by the decision of his daughter that he now stands captive to the interest group that at any moment could change course without waiting for the cue on what to do.
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