Providing Leadership
Mass Murderer
Google the image of “mass murderer + Philippines” and the results are mostly the pictures of Duterte. If one subscribes to the adage that the destiny of a nation lies in the character of its leader, then Duterte is destined to lead the Filipino nation straight to hell--hardly the definition of leadership by any stretch of the imagination.
Under threat of investigation by the International Criminal Court at The Hague (ICC), Duterte singlehandedly withdraws the Philippines from the ICC.
Duterte has made it clear his government will not cooperate with the ICC in any way. In a speech on March 13, 2019, he said, “The court can never acquire jurisdiction over my person. Not in a million years"--a declaration that reeks of impunity, thereby thrashing the principle of complementarity and paving the way of the ICC to “exercise jurisdiction where national legal systems fail to do so, including where they purport to act but in reality are unwilling or unable to genuinely carry out proceedings.”
Just for good measure, let’s cite a few of more glaring examples of the failure of leadership of the Philippine government, particularly under the Duterte Administration.
Destruction of National Ideals
Every nation has symbols, which represent beliefs, values, traditions, or other intangible ideas that distinguish that country. They are a source of pride that bind a nation together by reminding its people of their nation's history and most important principles. One of the most significant symbols in contemporary Philippine history is PEOPLE POWER, which was the overwhelming grassroots rejection of a corrupt, violent and fraudulent dictatorial regime that ousted Ferdinand Marcos and restored democracy in the Philippines.
By permitting the burial of Ferdinand Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani or Heroes’ Cemetery, Duterte sought to destroy the underlying ideals of PEOPLE POWER and drive a wedge of disunity in Philippine society to bolster his own Marcosian regime, as he systematically and systemically perverts once again the country’s fragile democratic institutions; in essence, a repeat of the Marcos Dictatorship under Duterte.
Furthermore, by elevating the status of Ferdinand Marcos to a “hero,” Duterte reinforces the “BIG LIE” perpetrated by the Marcos family (i.e., FM is the greatest president of the Philippines, he improved the lives of Filipinos, the Philippines was rich under Marcos, Marcos was not corrupt, life was peaceful under Marcos, Marcos declared Martial Law to enforce law and order, media reported good news during the Marcos rule, Marcos was rich before he became president, Marcos built infrastructure with his own wealth, Marcos was a hero before becoming president, Marcos made wealth from gold taken from the Japanese, Bongbong Marcos won the vice presidential elections in 2016, and so on) in a sustained strategic political campaign, including a battalion of trolls to condition the minds of the masses through social media (financed by unlimited plundered funds) to re-take Malacanang and rape and pillage the country anew.
Abuse of Power
Duterte has abused the power and influence of the presidency to quash all dissent (Senator Leila de Lima, Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno, Vice President Leni Robrebo, Senator Trillanes, ABS-CBN, Philippine Daily Inquirer under the Prietos, Rappler, Maria Ressa, among others) while he fortifies his political supremacy by liberating and cementing alliances with the crème de la crème of plunderers in the country (Enrile, ERAP, GMA, Bong Revilla, the Marcos family).
“Giving away the farm”
Duterte has sold-out our sovereignty to China, which has raped and pillaged our Exclusive Economic Zone in the West Philippine Sea, in spite of the July 2016 landmark ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration dismissing China's territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Bungled response to COVID pandemic
From the outset of the COVID pandemic, Duterte’s response has been consistently fraught with ineptitude, corruption and misinformation, including propaganda on the outstanding initiatives of the government in addressing the pandemic. This has resulted in a situation of “every man for himself” in which local government units (in particular, city governments that have the financial means) and private entities are scrambling to secure vaccines on their own, while the national government delays the approval of proven vaccines and prioritizes the use of less efficacious (possibly unsafe) vaccines from China (China Must Stop Hiding Its Vaccine Data).
As of February 28, 2021, the Philippines is only second to Indonesia, which has the worst COVID ranking in Southeast Asia in absolute terms. Indonesia has 1,329,074 confirmed cases and 35,981 deaths; whereas, the Philippines has 574,247 confirmed cases and 12,289 deaths.
Meanwhile, Dutere’s bungled response to the pandemic has plunged the Philippine economy to its worst contraction since World War II, with gross domestic product (GDP) falling by 9.5% in 2020--in contrast to Indonesia’s GDP falling by only 2.1% in 2020. As of January 2021, unemployment has soared to 10.2% and food has become markedly expensive, pushing inflation to 4.2%.
In short, Duterte has been an unmitigated disaster and an utter failure in leadership.
Maintaining Peace and Order
The New People's Army (NPA) is the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). Operating through fragmented armed guerilla units in some parts of the Philippine countryside and extorting “revolutionary taxes” from anyone they can intimidate, the NPA-CPP is one of the principal disruptors of peace and order in the country by way of their guerilla-style attacks and banditry against the police, military and civilian population, and remains the longest running armed-conflict in the Philippines.
The United States and the European Union have designated the NPA-CPP as "foreign terrorist organizations" in 2002 and 2005, respectively. Only recently (Proclamation No. 374 dated December 2017, reinforced by the Anti-Terrorism Council resolution dated December 2020), the Philippine government has officially designated the NPA-CPP as a terrorist group--a glaring delay that only reinforces the inadequacy of the Philippine government in fulfilling its basic function of maintaining peace and order in the country.
In an effort to consolidate his political base, Duterte pandered to the communists by appointing several card-carrying communist leaders to cabinet positions, including Paeng Mariano (Secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform or DAR), who wasted no-time in carrying-out his program of anarchy in the countryside, co-opting the DAR to work with the communists, disregarding due process and the rule of law, and committing brazen acts of violence against legitimate business enterprises--while the police and military, in spite of the unprecedented all-time record high “intelligence budget” of the president, watched on the sidelines as the “house burned down.”
Sure, there was the perfunctory condemnation of the communist attacks by the daughter of the president--after the fact. Even the lackeys of Duterte in the Senate were eventually compelled to reject the appointment of Paeng Mariano as the Secretary of DAR (who should have been incarcerated) in the light of his involvement in these brazen acts of violence (which Mariano predictably denied). However, the damage, which could have been prevented by a marginally competent government, is done and the principal character behind the anarchy remains scot-free.
So much for the Philippine government maintaining peace and order.
Providing Public Services
What public services? Read “Taxation is Theft” for details.
During this particular period of the COVID pandemic, when both public and private sectors all over the world are shifting as much of their services online, the bureaucratic kleptocracy of the Philippine government fails miserably. Even in the most mundane aspects of government services, like the renewal of a driver’s license, passport, vehicle registration, business permit or police (NBI) clearance, citizens are forced to physically appear in government agencies and suffer through hours (if not days) of queues upon queues of inefficient processing, unnecessarily subjecting both citizens and government employees to the COVID virus.
The reason for this abject failure of the Philippine government in migrating to online services is both simple and perverse. In a bureaucratic kleptocracy in which laws, rules, regulations, procedures, etc. have essentially been reduced to portals of extortion, online government services, which eliminates the in-person interaction between the citizen and the government personnel, force transparency into transactions, thereby eliminating the opportunity for the government personnel to extort bribes from the citizen. No wonder most government online services in the Philippines don’t work.
Providing National Security
Duterte has chosen: Province of China. There is only one country that has territorial and maritime designs against the Philippines--China. President Duterte has chosen to side with China, denigrating the Philippines into a serfdom of China.
Duterte to US: 'You want VFA done? You have to pay.' The long-standing alliance of the Philippines and the United States is the only credible defense of the country against the aggression of China. Yet Duterte treats the US like a Mafia boss extorting “protection money” from a shopkeeper, as if the US is the one in need of protection.
The actuations of Duterte are tantamount to a one-two punch that knocks-out National Security cold. It’s called high treason by no less than the president himself.
Providing Economic Security
One of the most fundamental factors of economic security is the level of national debt; that is, how much the government owes its creditors. Unfortunately, the manner in which the country’s debt level is conveyed to the general public is usually very obscure. Couple this problem with the fact many people do not understand how the national debt level affects their daily lives. Suffice it to say that less national debt is almost always better than more national debt with respect to economic stability and security. Moreover, excessive borrowing by the government is an economic disaster waiting to happen, which is exactly where the Philippine economy is headed due to the government’s excessive borrowing under Duterte’s administration.
When Aquino left office in June 2016, the country’s national debt amounted to P5.9 trillion (P6.511 trillion with guaranteed debt/contingent liabilities arising from government guaranteed loans secured by the President's cronies in the private sector, like Dennis Uy, which predictably become behest loans) based on data from the Bureau of Treasury. It is important to note, however, that this figure is cumulative, resulting from government loans secured by all of the past administrations. Enter Duterte and the national debt skyrockets. As of October 2020, the national government debt has reached P10 trillion and is forecasted to increase to P13.7 trillion by the end of Duterte’s term in 2022. Thus, in a single administration, Duterte will have more than doubled the national debt relative to national debt accumulated by ALL of the past administrations. How excessive is that?
Of course, Duterte will tout his “build, build, build” program, which is really tantamount to “kickback, kickback, kickback” notoriously institutionalized during the heyday of the Marcos dictatorship and his clique of cronies, who stole their share of plunder in virtually every sector of the Philippine economy. Not surprisingly, Duterte, straight out of the Marcos playbook (note the excessive borrowing during Marcos in the illustration below), is doing exactly the same thing as he once again mortgages the economic lives of several generations of Filipinos.
Another critical and strategic component of national economic development is the educational environment of the country. How do we compare with other countries not just in term of educational attainment but also in terms of quality of education, which translates to the quality of our workforce and professionals. Is a college graduate in the Philippines at par with a college graduate in China, India, South Korea, Singapore, United States, the European Union and so on.
The following article in BusinessWorld entitled "Numbers Don't Lie--Plummeting Education Standards: A National Emergency" by Andrew J. Masigan dated May 9, 2021, exposes the abject failure of the Philippine Government with respect to the national educational agenda. In a nutshell, it would appear that a typical college graduate from a public university in the Philippines may be at par with only a high school graduate in a public school in Singapore. It's as if the very foundation of the country's economic development (i.e., education) has been built on quicksand. Thanks to the dereliction of the Philippine government spanning several generations.
Providing Economic Assistance
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Maimonides
Apparently, the Philippine government’s idea of economic assistance is to give a man a fish, ostensibly labeled “Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program” or 4Ps, which translates to Bridging the Filipino Family Program, is a “conditional cash transfer program of the Philippine government under the Department of Social Welfare and Development”--in other words, a dole-out that could conceivably provide a few meals to a poor family (assuming it’s not used to buy cigarettes and alcohol, among other vices) but actually reinforces an already entrenched culture of mendicancy and political patronage in the Philippines.
Mendicancy in itself is defined as “the practice of begging, as for alms”. As it applies to culture, the practice of relying on handouts or the “kindness” of people for money or other forms of help. A culture of mendicancy basically creates people who may always be waiting on handouts; expecting that others with more means will readily assist them, thereby taking away the need or the urgency to make their own way in life.
Apart from the more obvious forms of mendicancy commonly observed in the streets (e.g., preaching the Bible in a bus, then collecting donations; cleaning a windshield without permission, then insisting on payment; adults carrying infants while begging for money and so on), there are less obvious forms of mendicancy that Filipinos may have grown accustomed to and, therefore, may no longer recognize them as such.
For instance, our country’s geographical location that places us in the path of at least one devastating typhoon practically every year, requiring disaster relief from the government and well-meaning foreign entities, has created a dependency on such disaster relief. So much so that even the most affected communities persist in rebuilding in the same high-risk areas, only to be wiped-out by the next devastating typhoon. This irresponsible, costly and preventable pattern of behavior is reinforced by the collective notion of citizens and government that disaster relief will be forthcoming (albeit at the expense of taxpayers and foreign assistance); hence, a culture of dependence and mendicancy.
This situation is exacerbated by corrupt government officials who skim-off their “SOP” (a perversion of the phrase “standard operating procedure” which connotes a “standard” percentage of plunder of public funds/resources by government officials) even from disaster relief funds and assistance (in many cases, rebranding disaster relief packages that shamelessly give credit to incumbent politicians), thereby disincentivizing the enforcement of sound relocation plans (hence, the rebuilding of affected communities in the same high-risk areas) and, worse, perpetuating our politicians’ rotten culture of patronage politics.
Another less obvious but far more insidious form of mendicancy is the tens of billions of US dollars being remitted by our OFWs to their families in the Philippines every year. In the past 30 plus years, the children, among other relatives, of OFWs are better fed, clothed, housed and schooled as a result of the overseas remittances from mom and dad. However, the social cost of this dependency is two or three generations of Filipinos that are less motivated to improve their economic situation on their own--because mom and dad (who are busting their chops overseas) will fill-in the gaps.
GMA, who was both corrupt and unpopular, felt the need to appease the masses and boost her popularity. Among other populist measures, she pardoned ERAP (who was a convicted plunderer) and initiated massive dole-outs. Hence, 4Ps, which has been further institutionalized by all subsequent administrations, is at best a lazy and uncreative means of economic assistance to the marginalized sectors of society and, in fact, a highly manipulative tool of political patronage that reinforces an already entrenched culture of mendicancy in the Philippines.
Conclusion
In ALL of the six basic functions of government, the Philippine government in general and under the Marcosian regime of Duterte in particular has been a miserable failure.
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
If you want more of the same irrelevant government over at least the next 18 years, be sure to vote Marcos Duterte in 2022, which envisions the following succession of power in the Philippines:
Bongbong for President and Sara for Vice President in 2022
Sara for President and Imee for Vice President in 2028
Imee for President and Pulong for Vice President in 2034
Soon enough, every Juan will be starving and lining-up for their ration of toilet paper (just like Venezuela under the extended dictatorship of Chavez and Maduro), while Marcos, Duterte and their clique of political dynasties and cronies live it up in the lap of luxury.
