IF PRESIDENT-elect Rodrigo Roa Duterte, also known as “Du30,” a self-confessed foul-mouthed killer and womanizer, did not self-destruct during the recent May 9 polls campaign, he’s self-destructing now, Santa Banana!
When he first asked to reconcile with his political enemies right after he won by over a six million votes over his closest rival, I praised him. To my mind, what this nation needs, first and foremost, is healing of political wounds and unity. Without these, we can never move forward.
I also praised him for his well-advised appointment of Davao businessman Carlos “Sonny” Dominguez as Finance secretary. He could not have named a better individual for the post.
Likewise, I commend the appointments of Perfecto Yasay as acting foreign affairs secretary and Andrea Domingo as chief of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. In their many years of public service, Yasay and Domingo have shown themselves to have honesty and integrity.
In the other Cabinet appointments, I draw the line.
I have also drawn the line against Duterte’s vow to eradicate criminality, trafficking of illegal drug and corruption within three to six months. I know they are not doable —unless Du30 proclaims martial law or gives himself authoritarian powers under a revolutionary government.
I am still asking—will he or won’t he became an authoritarian president?
I also draw the line with his advocacy for death penalty, specifically the execution of criminals by hanging. I believe in life, which only God can end.
Aside from the moral standpoint, Fr. Ranhilio Callangan Aquino cites the fact that in 2007, after a long period of hesitation, we acceded to the Second Optional Protocol to the Covenant on Civil Political Rights, an agreement that binds state-parties like the Philippines to the abolition of death penalty. It is a treaty obligation against barbarism.
As Fr. Aquino wrote, we can of course denounce the treaty, but that would make us a regressive nation on the important matter of human rights. It’s bad enough that Du30 allegedly has a record of human rights violations. The abolition of this treaty would certainly put the Philippines in the black list.
Du30 has now generalized that the Catholic Church is a hypocritical institution because he knows some bishops having mistresses. He lumps the Catholic Church with some scoundrels and lecherous members of the hierarchy. Du30 even questioned the Church’s relevance.
All this, because the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines issued a pastoral letter a week before the polls not to vote for candidates involved in immorality.
I really don’t mind Du30 brushing aside complaints from his long-time friend and patron, the Christian evangelist Apollo Quiboloy, for ignoring him in the selection of his presidential appointments. That’s the president’s prerogative. We know how Quiboloy gifted the Davao mayor so many things and allowed him to use his jet for campaign purposes. Isn’t that the height of ingratitude?
Du30 claims he’s a leftist-socialist. There is a thin line between this and being a communist. I am reminded of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, a socialist, who became president and started nationalizing all businesses. It is said that when a socialist crosses the Sahara desert, all the sand will disappear. My gulay, are we headed in that direction?
Note that a door has been opened for the entry of the National Democratic Front and the Communist Party to the government. They want the Visiting Forces Agreement and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement with the United States scrapped as a pre-condition for a peace process. They also want all political prisoners released. I wonder: What’s next?
And if the communists are given the Department of Social Welfare and Development portfolio, they will have no less than P62.3 billion in their hands to dole out to the poor. That would indeed be a powerful takeover of the country by the communist insurgents!
The bottom line here is that instead of healing political wounds and uniting the country, Du30 will only succeed in dividing an already fragmented nation.
Even now, I am told by my sources in the Armed Forces of the Philippines that some military segments are already restive over the Du30 presidency, especially when he started waltzing with Joma Sison and Luis Jalandoni of the National Democratic Front.
Whether we like it or not, we are all in the same boat with Du30. This nation will either sink or swim with him. I’m not an alarmist, only a concerned citizen and journalist.
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The marching orders given by the President-elect to newly-appointed Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez is to clean up Customs, known as the most graft-ridden and corrupt agency of government. He wants to make all of the bureau’s transactions transparent. The first thing that Dominguez will do is to have all Customs transactions done in an open gymnasium where people can see what’s going on all the time.
That’s both doable and practical.
If Sonny can take an unsolicited advice, he should also act on the long-standing problem of Customs. Some 900 personnel, many of them retired, still have not been paid their overtime, meal and transportation allowances amounting to no less than P1.7 billion.
The controversy started when the Board of Airline Representatives refused to give the Customs personnel the pay due them after working, beyond the mandated eight working hours every day, at the airport to assist arriving and departing passengers.
In September 2011, the Supreme Court ruled, in a judgment penned by Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, that domestic and foreign airlines should pay the 900 Customs personnel what is due them.
The problem was that Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and the long line of Customs Commissioners did not lift a finger to make the airlines pay the Customs personnel. They instead just abolished overtime. But, my gulay, those employees have given their hard work and dedication.
I hope Sonny heeds this in the name of justice and equity.
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Last Sunday, my wife and I visited a 102-old relative, the widow of my wife’s uncle, at her Medical City suite. Her name is Consuelo Capistrano.
Believe it or not, Mrs. Capistrano was still able to welcome all of us, and also able to have selfies with all of us. My wife and I love her, and she even had adobo cooked for us. At 102 years, she can still converse with her visitors. God bless her.