"What ail us are moral depravity and decadence."
On Monday, July 27, President Rodrigo Duterte will deliver his fourth State of the Nation Address.
This is an important event held on the opening of the regular session of the Congress of the Philippines every year.
This is the day when the president renders his report to the people on what he has done for the country in the last 365 days. He is also expected to tell the people what he wants to do in the last two years of his term.
What is, however, of special importance to the people is what his plans are for the presidential elections in 2022—if one will take place.
If elections are held even with the grave uncertainties confronting the nation today, what will be of special interest to the people is whom Mr. Duterte will endorse as his successor. The prevailing speculation is that whomever he anoints will be the next president. Unhappily, there is no one yet from the opposition who appears to be a good alternative.
In the event the exercise of suffrage is indefinitely postponed, the consequences will be either welcome or unbearable depending on which side one stands in the political fence.
Will the incumbent officials remain in hold-over capacities? Is this not abominable? Or unacceptable? If the President imposes martial law, it will surely be ratified by Congress because most of its members are loyal to or allied with him.
Most of the people would probably favor the imposition of martial law since he seems to still enjoy a high performance and acceptance rating.
What he would be doing is similar to what the late President Ferdinand Marcos did in 1972. He would be staging a revolt or mutiny against his own regime. Marcos called this constitutional authoritarianism, clearly a contradiction in terms.
Marcos said he imposed martial law to save the republic. Political analysts, however, opined that he did so to perpetuate himself in power since making his wife, Madam Imelda Marcos, run for president was a risky business. Mr. Duterte can offer the alibi that his imposition of martial rule is necessary to prevent the country from going under since the pandemic and economic devastation have become unbearable and terrifying. He cannot be accused of perpetuating himself in power since he still enjoys a high acceptance and performance rating. What is perhaps the truth is that there is no one among his trusted aides and allies who is highly acceptable to the electorate—and deserving of his endorsement.
Leaders of the political opposition and the President’s critics can howl and grumble in protest which most of the people will ignore or even detest.
Mr. Dutete remains popular because they people are tired and desperate for having been long abused and neglected. They voted for him because he promised to address their grievances and champion their welfare and interests. They are cheering him on because he has repeatedly sworn that he would go after the wealthy and elite for evading or underpaying their taxes to the government and for being responsible for the widening economic disparity and the continuing poverty of the masses.
With the pandemic still disturbing their minds, the people will cling to Mr. Duterte for being one among them.
This is the real state of the nation today.
What President Duterte is trying to do is to alleviate the sufferings of the poor and destitute and allay their fears of the crisis confronting the nation.
But what is the more serious ailment of the Filipino nation?
What ails the Filipino people today is not just graft and corruption, the drug menace, or the economic recession. The cancer gnawing at the minds and hearts of our people is moral depravity and decadence.
What has happened to the original inhabitants of this archipelago?
The barangays which existed before foreigners reached our shores were functional village democracies. The inhabitants were simple and humble people who were cooperative rather than combative; hospitable rather than suspicious, and decent rather than devious. The village chieftains like Lapu Lapu were courageous and daring,
It was the Spaniards who corrupted their simple beliefs, the Americans who treated them with condescension, and their own leaders who never really cared for them.
There is hardly any president who sincerely loved our country and our people.
Will President Rodrigo Duterte prove to be the exception?
Mr. Ernesto G. Banawis was formerly general manager of the Philippine News Agency.