Either out of sheer frustration or sincere admiration, Senator Sonny Angara, twice a victim of COVID 19, has commented that Health Secretary Francisco Duque lll as having been beatified to a higher level.
In Catholic terms. beatification leads to canonization which ultimately bestows sainthood to a person. Beatification makes the person blessed first. In either case, the person must be dead and not a living one.
Angara made his apparently sarcastic comment after Duque admitted a mea culpa to another egregious blunder at his job resulting in the delayed payment of benefits to the families of Filipino medical frontliners who had died as a result of COVID 19 infection.
Angara’s mouthful is understandable. It was’t the first time Duque admitted a huge misstep in his department. There had been , at least, two incidents where his resignation was asked by senators from both sides of the political fence and private sector leaders. Each time, Duque had invoked the oft-repeated defense that he served at the pleasure of his master, President Duterte who had obliged to keep him in the Cabinet.
My scant understanding is that, for a person, a dead one, to be canonized, at least two miracles must be ascribed to him. No less than two miracles, at least, can be credited to Duque’s name after surviving a series of bungles and resign calls. He has probably the most of either or both on record.
The only problem, for the Catholic church, is that Duque is alive and kicking.
Duque’s record as professional and public servant, is not something to be sneezed at, to be sure. He has studied and trained at Ivy League schools in the Philippines and the United States. He was a health secretary under former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, commissioner of the Civil Service Commission and as secretary of health again under Duterte. Like his bigger- than- life protector, he’s not squeamish about blood, obviously, because he is a surgeon.
I suspect this solid resume is only part of the reasons Duterte wants him to his side despite the political and non-political snipings from vantage points. It must be his character. He must be humble and meek, characters that evidently Duterte , especially leaders and powerful like him, admires.
I guess humility is ingrained in Duque;it’s in his genes.
I remember a story told by a doctor – friend who once had an intimate conversation with Duque. It turned hat his father, his namesake, was also the secretary of health during the presidency of Diosdado Macapagal, GMA’s father. The older Duque, it was gleaned from the younger Duque’s story, that he was constantly shouted at more often by the first lady than by the president himself. Maybe because of some gaffes or bunglings at his job. Like father like son, like mother like daughter, it seems, retrospectively.
Genetics and destiny must be correlated.
Anyway, the old man walked away from Cabinet perch slightly more than year after roosting on it.He ran for mayor of Dagupan. He probably wanted to be his own man and just wanted to get away from the dragon on the doorway. The younger Duque appears to have the kind, as a lawyer friend loves to say, of internal fortitude his father didn’t have. That’s where genetics end and Machiavelli’s theory begins.
But I have this remote sense that Duque is there because he could be valuable in the new religion that Duterte once said he had in mind The religion’s patron saint is San Rodrigo. Whether that refers to him or another saint of old, I profess to know not. I know of San Francisco, after Saint Francis of Assisi. It must be fun to belong to such a religion with another new saint named Francisco in tow.
Duterte has, at least, two humble persons whom he can rely on in his new envisioned vocation, Duque and the prophetic Pastor Quiboloy who had just allegedly vanquished a TV network into oblivion and has since preached against arrogance since the day it closed shop. These two might have influenced some of Duterte’s decisions.For instance, apologizing to the country’s two corporage bigwigs and accepting the apology of the executives of a network he wanted shutdown for good.
So those who still cry out for Duque’s head, save your voice for another winnable cause.
All this time, just about everybody should have a working theory that Duterte loves and respects relationships. A lot people he has surrounded himself with are from Davao or were former classmates or work partners. His newest appointment in the Health deparment as undersecretary is from Davao. He is comfortable with people who speak or understand his language, body and otherwise. And love and laugh at his jokes, of course!
And for some reason, he is fond of people lik e Presidential Legal Adviser Salvador Panelo and Presidential Spokeperson Harry Roque who seem ready and willing to give their boss political blowjobs, anytime even on holidays and weekends.
That means one must refrain from criticizing Duterte directly or indirectly in public. Especially if you have a buck tooth or a protruding jaw like a human rights lawyer.
I remember that one of the first, if not the first, persons to credit Duterte for saving the Philippines from further devastations of the C OVID 19 crisis, despite contratry viewpoints from some sectors, was Duque. Please take a bow.
He has been the president’s champion and the president is just returning the favor.
Forget it, Sonny. The problem is in our stars.
