ONLY THE devil and Chinese were pleased.
It was a rare, pathetic event held in Malacanang some nights ago. Its principal tenant presided over a pity party like a wounded sheep not as a roaring beast, and guess who was invited as special guest? Johnny-come-lately Ponce Enrile sir, an aging legal lion in autumn. What a galling, even if entertaining, political show it was: a former senator who faked his own ambush in his time as defense chief and a president who faked a jet ski promise to the South China Sea. It was risible: credibility being forged on the utter lack of it.
Both Duterte and Enrile knew beforehand what their pre-arranged meeting was all about: to shore up each other’s bruised ego in the face of history’s unfailing sign and inevitable judgment: they are not on the right side, even if they are on the same side. All the while the President’s yes-men kept silent while their boss complained like a child to the consenting adult that he was being ganged up by critics, being blamed for the sins of his predecessor and being pushed to go to war with China.
Here was a stage-managed presidential misrepresentation that attempted to depict self-pity as the hallmark of leadership, characterize it as the lodestar of patriotism, even heroism and casting critics as the enemy of the people instead of the big bully busy annexing reefs and shoals in the South China Sea that belong to the Philippines.
And the highest leader’s patented, squeak of a response has been: yes, we can’t. Enrile is the latest addition to the choir which sings out of tune with the whole nation. Well, not so many believed his “Gusto ko happy ka” line the last time.
Enrile, the master politician that he is, played well for the 30-minute of new fame: he went beyond agreeing; he buttered him up. It was a classic performance, although, in the end, he wasn’t quite dismissive of the Arbitral Award to the Philippines. No lawyer worth his salt can simply say that a legal and moral decision of an international body is just a scrap of whatever. Enrile knows he still has political miles before sleep. He’s not done writing his memoirs yet.
It is said that to push a bad product a faster way out of the market is to have a bad endorser for it. Enrile sure fit the bill for the role. The morning after, the result of the zarzuela in Malacanang that evening drew even more protest from concerned citizens, notably from retired military and police generals and the Integrated Bar of Zambales. They have basically the same message: Duterte should not speak the way he does about the Philippine’s posture in the South China Sea.
In other words, the retired generals were not convinced by Enrile’s peans to the Duterte on the latter’s being rightfully judge by history. He was wrong to be speaking on China’s behalf when he’s supposed to defend the Constitution and Philippine sovereignty, even if from a perspective or perception of weakness in terms of military capability. And Duterte was also being divisive about the whole issue, instead of uniting the nation against a sneaky neighbor which he has been eagerly, too eagerly, portraying as a good friend.
Enrile was a metaphor, an old crutch that Duterte needed to prop himself up after falling flat on his face after backing out of his own challenge to former Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio to a debate.
It was a mind game he lost and he needed someone to psyche him up and tell him he was alright. He is not.
So, what clearly emerged from the Duterte-Enrile Show was a President who wanted to be assured by those who agree with him, that he was leading the country in the right direction, even if it meant treating the Constitution like a scrap of paper because of political superiority. He could be impeach for betrayal of public trust, Carpio suggested, but the legislators, lower and upper, are under his magic spell. So, forget about it.
To control damage to his presidential image by his constant pro-China remarks, Duterte has limited opinions that pass for policy about the South China Sea to come from a triumvirate: him, Secretary Teddy Boy Locsin and Harry Roque, the spokesman. Control, not correction, is the new found strategy of China’s loudest ally in the Philippines. Too many cooks spoil the Chinese lugaw.
But that may be a little late. Most everybody in our neck of the woods feel Duterte is not doing his job right in defending what rightfully belongs to Filipinos. Even a lowly fisherman who fell for Duterte’s jet ski promise during the presidential campaigns, and voted for him, now sees his mistake, and feel bad it was only a joke after all. Fighting the perils of the sea and Chinese harassment to make a decent living for his family wasn’t a joking matter.
In the mind of the most people, at least patriotic Filipinos, Duterte isn’t the President the Philippines need over the high-stake dispute over the South China Sea where every right word and argument is a plus to further cement our claim over the territories we won via the Arbitral Award.
To think like the Chinese leaders, as Roque would try to explain Duterte’s way of describing it as a mere scrap of paper, is un-Filipino. That’s not leading but misleading. It’s no wonder that it gets the support of some people with the sad reputation of misleading the people they have sworn to serve faithfully and truthfully.
After Enrile, who was accused by Sonny Trillanes of not telling the whole truth, who’s next on line to sing like David to a troubled Saul?
