(Conclusion)
I had to laugh when I saw the headline of this newspaper’s editorial: “The mouth that roared.” But I think a lot of people tend to forget that the new president is also a man of prompt and decisive action, not just some old guy from the boonies with an outrageously dirty mouth.
For instance, Duterte’s immediate predecessor, Noynoy Aquino, was never known as an “action man.” And Aquino just didn’t talk about things that he felt he could not accomplish or that weren’t important to him.
This was how Aquino was able to complete his six-year term without once mentioning the illegal drug problem in a State of the Nation Address. I am convinced that Aquino also believed that if he never took the humongous gridlock on the roads seriously, maybe it wasn’t really happening.
Noynoy, with his convoy making sure that he always enjoyed unimpeded travel, famously dismissed traffic as “a sign of progress.” But Duterte, I think, understands that Aquino’s inexplicable policy of not doing anything about traffic was one of the main reasons why, by the time Aquino’s term was nearly over, no one believed he was in charge anymore.
The world-beating gridlock in Metro Manila, Cebu and other big cities did not happen overnight – it took years of neglect for things to end up like this. And Duterte will need a lot of money for new roads, bridges, airports, seaports and other infrastructure that Aquino somehow failed to build during his term, if he intends to solve it.
Some accomplishments of Duterte were a lot easier to do—they required only sincerity, common sense and a lot less time than the 100 days set aside for his traditional “honeymoon.” For instance, Duterte only signed a piece of paper to implement a Freedom of Information order that Aquino hemmed and hawed about for six years – even if Noynoy promised to deliver an FOI law when he was campaigning in 2010.
Ending the “tanim bala” cottage industry at the airport was even easier. All Duterte’s men had to do was to remove bullets found in airline passengers’ luggage and to allow them to fly out, instead of holding them hostage and making them easy targets for airport extortionists; how hard was that?
Another area where Duterte showed decisiveness—besides great compassion and a big heart for the ordinary Filipino—was when he directed his labor officials to stop the practice of illegal labor contractualization, also known as “endo.” It was the same caring for laborers that he showed when he worked to bring home upwards of 9,000 Filipinos stranded by hard economic times in Saudi Arabia—Filipinos who had been homeless way before Duterte took office but who were abandoned by his feckless, uncaring predecessor, as well.
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His critics also chide Duterte for being blood-thirsty and warlike. But these people forget —intentionally, perhaps—that Duterte is on the verge of permanently ending both the decades-old Communist insurgency and the century-old Moro rebellion during his term.
I think both the Moros and the Communists, who have known and dealt with Duterte for decades, have finally found someone whom they know is sincere about talking peace with them. While the CPP-NPA-NDF is hammering out a long-term peace agreement with Duterte’s negotiators in Oslo, Norway, a nationwide truce is holding up nicely all over the countryside; Duterte’s appointment of known leftists like Rafael Mariano and Judy Taguiwalo to his Cabinet also helped jump-start the moribund peace process with the Reds.
In Mindanao, Duterte has brought both the Moro National Liberation Front and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front to the negotiating table by promising them autonomy without sacrificing the Constitution. And Duterte has managed to alienate the IS-wannabe Abu Sayyaf bandit group besides, thus forcing the MNLF to abandon the crime group, to prove that it really wants peace.
Fortunately for Filipinos (the Filipinos who have not made it their mission to remove Duterte from office, anyway), Duterte has also assembled a Cabinet made up mostly of veteran bureaucrats and experts in their respective fields who are doing a lot of the heavy lifting for him. Team Duterte will never be called, as Aquino’s Cabinet was unforgettably labeled by the late Senator Joker Arroyo, a student government.
And then, there’s Duterte’s greatest strength and accomplishment, securing the trust of the people. The latest Social Weather Stations survey shows that Duterte, in his first three months in office, has gotten the highest trust rating among all new presidents since 1986, when SWS started tracking such things. And it’s safe to say that as long as Duterte enjoys the backing of majority of the people, he will continue doing what he’s doing—yes, including the cursing.
Those who wish Duterte ill will have to work harder to bring him down. The man from Davao City is no pushover and certainly no political fluke.
In his first 100 days as president, that seems to have been made perfectly, foul-mouthedly clear.