"The majority of Filipinos are no longer afraid of the once-fearsome former mayor of Davao City."
One of the saddest and most pejorative phrases forming part of politics’ lexicon is “lameduck.” This is the phrase that is used to describe an elective or appointive public official who is nearing the limit of his or her term of office, which marks the end of his or her ability to make people move and make things happen.
Lame-duck status is inevitable; it’s bound to come, and only the most astute of public officials are able to delay its onset or minimize its impact.
It is difficult to say at what point in his or her tenure of office an official may be said to have started to become a lame duck. Generally, the onset of lame-duck status takes place toward the beginning of an official’s last year in office. One-year-before-the-term’s-end appears to be the norm where lame-duck status is concerned.
Being a lame duck is not a matter of an official’s losing control of the levers of power or of having less and less command buttons to push. Persons vested by law with authority – such as the authority to make appointments – can exercise that authority almost up to his or her last day in office. The extreme manifestation of this legal fact is the authority of duly empowered public officials to make appointments until just before the eleventh hour.
Being a lame duck is, rather, a matter of attitude – the attitude toward the soon-to-exit official of his colleagues in the other branches of the government and within his administration. This gradual change of attitude can take various forms. It can take the form of performing duties and tasks with less care or less speed or less concern. Above all, this change of attitude on the part of colleagues and subordinates towards a soon-to-exit official takes the form of being less and less fearful of the official. The colleagues and subordinates become less afraid to displease or confront the official.
Seen in this light, Rodrigo Duterte has entered the lame-duck phase of his presidency. Of course, he still wields the awesome power that the Constitution bestows on this country’s chief executive; he can still remove and castigate erring public officials and cause things to be done: using the inherent authority of the president of the Philippines to enforce public policy.
But the fear toward him of his colleagues and subordinates, which reached its height during the early “I will kill you” and “I will fire you” phase of his presidency, is no longer there. The majority of Filipinos are no longer afraid of the once-fearsome former mayor of Davao City.
Cases in point are the members of the Senate, which once was part of his super-congressional majority. Some Senators are now openly speaking out against President Duterte to the point of almost being insulting. This criticism and rebuke were unthinkable during the first years of Mr. Duterte’s Presidency. Today Senator Richard Gordon calls Mr. Duterte a bully and gets away with it.
Depending on how they comported themselves while in office, presidents are treated with either respect or derision as they prepare to leave the presidency.
Lame ducks are treated with respect, even affection, if they have been good chief executives; they are treated in payback-time fashion if they have not been true to the presidential oath of office. The way President Duterte is being treated by some of his erstwhile congressional supporters indicates what kind of lame duck he is.
