LIBERAL PARTY stalwart Sen. Franklin Drilon has come up with a simple sketch of the country’s state if might as well be the relevant subject of President Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) when he stands before the podium in the House of Representatives next month. The devil is on the details.
Drilon has virtually preempted Duterte but the latter will definitely not buy into that for his last swan song. As far as Duterte is concerned, the Senate minority floor leader has always been a killjoy of sort.
Expectedly, the President will come up with an audio-visual of the positives, not the negatives, of this Administration in the last five years and what it hopes to achieve in the remaining lame duck timeline of 3 to 6 months. Expletives will be unnecessary interruptions, but these are sound effects that somehow sound like music to his choir. SONAs are supposed to be open-and-shut.
Drilon named at least three things — they’re not new to be sure—that will be faced by the new president, regardless of his or her political inheritance, party or pedigree, in the next six years. These have been the same problems, not issues or inventions , that have stopped the Philippines on its way to build its own place under the sun. Huge debt, poverty and unemployment, he said. China wasn’t even included.
We have been in and out of this perennial mess, as if we obviously haven’t learned our lesson in political insanity: doing things the same way over and over again and hope something different will come out. We haven’t, in fact. The pandemic has made them worse, or has shown that we’ve been worse in dealing with our problems.
To be fair, the Duterte isn’t entirely to blame for the huge debt the country has run into. It’s the pandemic, stupid. But, it is blamed for mismanaging the pandemic that has further exacerbated the three problems Drilon has mentioned.
Drilon has made his analysis public to warn anyone who casts a moist eye on the presidency, not to discourage, but to be realistic about the job. It’s one thing to be elected, it’s another story to get the job done. The late United States President John F. Kennedy was said to have thought as much after his election. For Duterte , using a jet ski across the South China Sea was a winning mantra. It was, but he found out that it wasn’t possible, given who was at the other end of the sea. The rest, as the cliché goes, is history. He explained away later that it was a joke. Jokes can be infinitely costly.
In other words, following Drilon’s theory, it will be far from a walk in the park for the next president. A milquetoast of a leader is not wanted. He or she will have to hit the ground or sea running. Will a pedigree or inheritance be of any help? Familiarity, especially with China, may only breed contempt, not trust.
Experts are dismissive. For one,recyled sons or daughters have had bad records. They inhabited the bank of Pasig River, and the same water lilies clogged it every year. Notwithstanding, it looks, though, that recycling might be a continuing option to those fortunate to have it, and on a silver platter. The idea of Duterte running as vice president is an ominous sign.
This option is highly luring for the Duterte Administration, especially in light of a possibility, however remote, that he will be made accountable by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity over his war on drugs that had snuffed out the lives of thousands of people. At least two of the President’s legal whisperers and jesters have dismissed the possibility by simple logic of law.
Former Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio, the leader of the 1Sambayan looking for a presidential bet with the enthusiasm of Diogenes looking for an honest man with a lamp in broad daylight, is convinced Duterte and his legal team may be trapped by their own illogic.
As a political opposition, Carpio’s group may be fortunate in having its nominees sans the tag as recycled relatives that can be hamstrung by political liabilities. It looks that is as far as it goes because majority of its nominees had declined the nomination. They might have had Drilon’s warning in mind even before he said it. The road ahead of 2022 must not have been on their political radar. It’s a job that looks cut out for a political Superman. And Chel Diokno, Bro. Eddie Villanueva, Rep. Vilma Santos and Sen. Grace Poe probably had an honest-to-goodness reflection that they didn’t fit the bill. Thanks but not thanks.
Sen. Richard Gordon has lately announced his intention, again, to run for president and is shopping around for a vice presidential timber. The veteran politician may have the gravitas to face the demanding tune of Drilon’s nearly apocalyptic melody, but he has yet to prove his mettle against a bully politician with a good eye on a bad pouch.
The pandemic may be on its declining path, considering the trend in the NCR Plus, but the whole country is not out of the woods. Vaccination still has a long way to go, even if vaccine arrivals increase daily, or are made to look that way. Quoting the American Robert Frost, there are still miles to go before we sleep even as the house we live is full of snow
Drilon’s warning is saying that much. Partly because the 2022 elections are coming. Partly because the future he foresees is very daunting. And these approaching two inevitable affairs of the nation are not mutually exclusive. The best was to predict the future, according Abraham Lincoln, is to create it. In both Drilon’s warning and Lincoln’s advice, choice is implied.
