Less than three days from today, BS Aquino will be history. Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte will be sworn in as the country’s new president.
Duterte has many challenges to face in the next six years. We can expect him to hit the ground running. The people have high expectations of him—too high. Can he deliver in the first 100 days?
For instance, Duterte wants to eradicate criminality, illegal drugs and corruption in three to six months. Many say it is not doable unless he proclaims martial law or a revolutionary government. He will become a dictator. So, will he or won’t he?
To achieve his goal, Duterte wants the death penalty restored —to be more effective, death by hanging. Rapists and drug lords will be hanged twice.
But wishing and doing are two different things. Congress first has to reimpose the death penalty, which is easier said than done. The Catholic Church is vehemently against it, and the Church has many adherents in Congress. Duterte may have control of the House of Representatives with incoming Speaker Bebot Alvarez as his pointman. In the Senate, however, it would be a different story since it is composed of 24 independent republics.
Even the incoming chief of the Philippine National Police has expressed doubts about achieving the target within six months.
And then there is the problem of the Abu Sayyaf terror group. The Abus have links to the dreaded ISIS. So will Duterte invade Sulu to fight the Abu Sayyaf? Even now, the Armed Forces of the Philippines is trying hard to decimate them.
Mr. Duterte also says he would kill drug users/addicts. He does not seem to realize that they are the victims, not the culprits.
In carrying out his crusade against drugs, he has to depend on police intelligence to identify pushers. This will likely be a problem, as members of the police themselves are in cahoots with drug lords and traffickers.
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Duterte also wants Congress to grant him emergency powers to solve Metro Manila’s traffic crisis.
By what means, we still don’t know. There have been many proposals, but it appears the solutions we need are drastic ones.
The incoming president should remember that we are still living in a democracy where the rule of law and due process are observed and where human and civil rights are sacrosanct.
As for corruption, which Duterte also wants to eradicate in six months, I don’t believe it can be done for so long as people in government remain human beings. Corruption can only minimized. My gulay, even in Communist China and Vietnam where those found guilty of corruption are executed, corruption remains.
Sixteen million people voted for Duterte because they are sick and tired of an incompetent and do-nothing administration under BS Aquino. They expect real change. But all the things Duterte promised cannot be fully realized unless he resorts to martial law and institutes a revolutionary government.
This is why I keep asking: Will he or won’t he?
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Duterte scored a “10” by having a two-day dialogue with the business community in Davao City. Business organizations presented their 10-point agenda for economic development.
Every incoming president must listen to what business and industry wants.
Still, the high expectations of the business community was dampened with the appointment of Lopez clan and ABS-CBN heiress Gina Lopez, a professed anti-mining advocate. She has gone all-out against any form of mining, especially the open-pit kind. Lopez is also against coal-fired power plants, which means that coal mines in the Philippines will have to go.
The problem is that many of the power plants in the country are coal-fired.
Indonesia now bans the shipment of coal to the Philippines because of the Abu Sayyaf problem. Santa Banana, where will the coal-fired power plants get their coal? We may have to see a resurgence of blackouts in the Luzon grid if Gina Lopez has her way.
I don’t know how Duterte, an advocate of responsible mining, can tell Lopez to hold her horses against mining. This is why I think she may have to resign sooner than expected as secretary of the environment and natural resources.
If he resigns, she won’t be missed. All I can say is “good riddance.”
There are some members of the Cabinet who can ably guide him: Finance’s Carlos Dominguez, Budget and Management’s Ben Diokno, Education’s Leonor Briones, Peace’s Jess Dureza, Labor’s Silvestre Bello and Foreign Affairs’ Jun Yasay.
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First, six Commission on Elections commissioners described Chairman Andres Bautista’s stint as “failed leadership.” This is for his many shortcomings in the agency, like delayed payment of salaries of election workers.
Now we hear that Bautista has gone to Japan without naming an acting chairman and without resolving many other cases at the Comelec.
I don’t know what has been happening with Bautista. When he was chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, he did his job with flying colors. This made me support him when he was appointed chairman of the Comelec.
But with all the things happening at the Comelec, I am changing my mind about Andy Bautista.
I cannot understand why Bautista left for Japan without authority from the rest of the commissioners, and without naming an acting chairman to attend to things in his absence. Bautista knows there are many pending matters at the Comelec.
Since the Comelec chairman is a constitutional official, he can only be removed by impeachment. It’s not that I am recommending his impeachment. Still, that sounds like a solution to the mess at the poll body.