BARELY three months into his term, President Rodrigo Duterte has become notorious for wandering off script.
This tendency to speak whatever is on his mind on any occasion was on full display Monday night, when he addressed the victims of the Sept. 2 bomb attack on the Davao City night market that left 15 dead and 70 wounded.
The families of those killed or disabled received P250,000, while those who suffered less serious injuries got P100,000 from the President’s Social Fund. The assistance—and the President’s obvious compassion for the victims and their families—were certainly most welcome, particularly given his predecessor’s callous ways.
What was less welcome were the President’s rambling remarks that rehashed ground that he had already covered: his word war against world leaders who criticized his human rights record in his ongoing war on illegal drugs; the sins of the Americans during our colonial past; and his request that he be given six more months to put an end to the drug menace.
Given the occasion, the President might more profitably have used the time to update the families on the government’s quest to bring the bombers to justice.
Still, the families listened patiently to the President’s rambling tirades—as did the rest of us who followed the event on TV—because they knew they would receive much-needed assistance in the end.
As much as this President likes to wander off script, nobody can fault him for having a singular focus on his promise to eradicate the illegal drug trade. Although his campaign promise was to do so in six months, he has now come back to the people and asked for more time—another half a year, because of the extent of the problem.
The problem with this singular focus is that other promises—just as urgent—seem to have been pushed aside. On the 84th day of President Duterte’s first 100 days in office, for example, nothing significant has been done to relieve long-suffering motorists and commuters in Metro Manila of the ordeal of the daily commute. The city trains still break down with disturbing regularity, taxi drivers still turn down passengers with no regard to the concept of public service, and bus drivers still block lanes on the highway as they jockey for position. The lack of road discipline is palpable—yet this government has done nothing about it. With more than 80 of the first 100 days gone, Transport officials are still in Congress, asking for emergency powers to do anything.
In a flash of genius, the new boss at the Metro Manila Development Authority proposes cheap drones as a solution to the perennial traffic jams and flooding, failing to comprehend that monitoring the situation is far different from actually doing something to ease it.
While he is doing battle with international critics and the illegal drug trade, it would be good if the President spared some time to see that his handpicked officials aren’t letting the rest of the country go to rot, and that they move with some urgency to keep the promises he made.