Manila: Nearly four weeks into his presidency, tough-talking Rodrigo Duterte has made clear the direction his administration intends to take and what could be expected from his administration.
Duterte completes his first month in office on July 31. Riding on his experience and reputation as the top executive of Davao City for more than two decades, the 72-year-old overwhelmingly bested the other candidates for the presidency including Vice-President Jejomar Binay and administration candidate Mar Roxas.
But, after his election victory, it’s time for him to deliver on his promises.
Here are some of the promises he made and the action taken on those in the short time he has been in office.
Law and order
In the run-up to the elections and until he formally assumed office on June 30, Duterte had warned of a massive government drive to root out drug addiction, which he described as “tearing the fabric of the Philippine society and destroying families”.
In a short span of time, government efforts are already bearing fruit. Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Ronald Dela Rosa said that from a high of 52,950 crime incidents in January 2016, the crime volume dipped 13 per cent through the first and second quarters of the years to 46,060 incidents recorded in June.
From July 1, a total of 120,038 voluntarily yielded to authorities, among them, 112,902 drug users and, 7,107 pushers, according to official PNP records.
“This was the result of the Duterte effect” columnists and news reports said as it described the fear brought upon by Duterte’s crackdown on drugs.
But while some may agree on Duterte’s anti drugs campaign, there are those who have mixed feelings about it.
“I do not agree to a nationwide killing rampage but I understand it is necessary in Mindanao where I grew up,” Lilibeth Sia, who is in her early 50s and who runs an event management firm in Metro Manila, said.
According to figures provided by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalim (PCIJ) said that so far, “at least 33 incidents related to the campaign that will be investigated on the commission’s own initiative,”
CHR Commissioner Leah Armamento says: “Actually, our investigators are now almost working 24/7. They cannot finish their reports quickly because there’s so much to do.”
As Duterte’s war on drugs unfolded, questions arose on whether the suspects had been given due process as bodies not just turn up on the streets at night, but are assassinated in broad daylight in front of people.
Lorela Sandoval, a businesswoman in La Union in northern Philippines said that while she agrees with the positive aspects of the so-called ‘Duterte Effect’ suspects still need to be proven guilty.
“What if they are innocent then that would be injustice to them isn’t it,” she said.
But for Hector Mercado, an air conditioning technician and a father of five who lives in the predominantly urban poor Gulayan district in Malabon City, he said he can only say positive about the current government’s drive against criminality.
“Now, I am not afraid to walk the streets at night and I can work longer hours. I am less fearful of somebody sneaking behind me in the dark and telling me to give up all my earnings for the day,” he told Gulf News, adding: “For me that is what matters the most.”
Internal conflict
When Duterte was declared President in May, one of the first things that he would do was to announce a ceasefire with the communist umbrella group which had been fighting the government for 47 years, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New Peoples’ Army (NPA).
On Monday, he did just that. On his first State of the Nation Address, he declared a unilateral ceasefire with communist rebels.
“No one wants peace more than the soldiers themselves who do the fighting,” an Army sergeant, who refuses to have his name published told Gulf News in an earlier interview inside Camp Capinpin in Rizal province, east of Manila.
“Declaring a ceasefire, although unilateral, is a positive gesture. Hopefully a ceasefire agreement will be signed so we can focus on other important concerns,” he said.
The peace process with communist rebels was initiated during the administration of president Fidel Ramos during the initial years of the 1990s. During the previous administration under Benigno Aquino, the talks hardly progressed as both sides had been wary of the peace negotiations being used for political propaganda. Under the Duterte administration, the leader made an unprecedented move of declaring a ceasefire without any condition in exchange.
Duterte also said during the Sona that he wants to put closure on the so-called ‘Bangsamoro Question,’ that has resulted in at least three decades of strife in Southern Philippines.
Reacting to the President’s statement Muslimin Sema chair of the MNLF council of 15 said: “There is a possibility that he (Duterte) would be the last president we are to negotiate with. We are inspired by his being positive on the peace process and for that we will reciprocate with honour and vigour.”
Sema’s group is the largest among the four factions of the MNLF and was the only one that signed a unified declaration with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
“It is easier to solve the Mindanao problem now while the moderate, older Moro leaders are still alive. The next generation of Moro leaders will surely be radical and dealing with them might be tediously difficult,” Sema said.
Decades of insurgency and separatist strife had locked parts of the Philippines in a vicious cycle of conflict. In most cases, combatants who were born into the conflict has known no other life but that being engaged in fighting.
During a speech he gave to soldiers of the 7th Infantry Division, based in Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija on July 26, Duterte said: “I am a President that seeks peace with everyone. My job as president is not to look for conflict. My job is to make sure that there will be no conflict in the Philippines and that the military will be there ever ready to guard the integrity of the republic to protect the people.”
As for the Abu Sayyaf, he said that although he believes that the conflict is rooted on their desire for self-determination, the group – notorious for kidnap for ransom and beheading of captives – has to make a choice. “Are they willing to talk or fight it out,” he said.
Anti-corruption drive
With regards to this particular campaign promise of the President, this is possibly the one of the most crucial and difficult to gauge. With very little in the way of metrics to judge the achievements of the administration, government has no concrete means to determine whether a certain agency is corrupt until actual cases are filed in court and prospered against officials.
One of the first items in the reform agenda of the government was to replace officials of the Bureau of Customs, but other corrupt agencies such as the Bureau of Internal Revenue are relatively untouched.
“We really have yet to see something drastic and spectacular to say that government is serious in its reform agenda concerning certain government agencies,” said an anti-corruption advocate who requested anonymity.
While Duterte boasts that there have been achievements in the faster processing of government documents, the practice of so-called public servants from asking for grease money remain prevalent and there are no indications that this would change.
In most cases, corruption is an embedded thing at the grassroots level.
As much as that in the grassroots, corruption also ails other branches of government including the judiciary.
According to the 2016 Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Report, the Philippines ranks 7th among the 16 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
It said the Philippines had achieved gains during the Aquino administration in ridding corruption. This however, these gains could be reversed if there is no follow through to this momentum.
Nevertheless, Filipinos, such as Carmela Huelar, a journalist covering the transport and shipping sector is not losing hope.
“I am very positive that Duterte will make an impact with regards to the anti-corruption drive.
I think he has the willpower to effect change and that is what is important,” she said.
“He is not scared of anyone because he does not owe anybody a debt of gratitude,” she added.
Human trafficking
Also during the Sona, Duterte also declared a no-let up drive against human traffickers and making the processing of documents for overseas Filipino workers (OFW) easier.
“I place this issue in parity in importance with the anti-drug campaign,” the President said.
Susan Ople of the Blas F. Ople Policy Centre on labour migration said the overseas Filipino workers sector “is also happy to hear that he will be true to his campaign promise to create a separate department for our OFWs and a hi-tech one-stop shop to address their needs.”
Sona given by past Presidents, such as Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino did not dwell much on the issues involving OFWs.
Likewise, the President said he will work for lengthening the validity of passports from current five years to ten years. He also promised to end long qeueus for passport applications and release. He said his heart breaks every time he sees Filipinos wanting to go overseas having a difficult time in getting their travel documents. OFWs contribute a large part to the country’s economy and have played a role in saving the Philippine economy during difficult times.
As Duterte himself had said, in the end, it is not as much as what the President says or do but what the people responds to the need to act.
