A29 PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY December 16 - 31 , 2016
Dayspring
By Ed Malay
Without A Rallying Point , Duterte Will Finish The Race
Only a voluntary resignation and or death will stop Philippine President Rodrigo Roa Duterte from finishing his term on June 30 , 2022 . And no less than the various groups who have been very vocal against the President ’ s unorthodox style of governance will make this happen even if such is against their will and pleasure .
Many will probably ask how the Opposition became a party to this emerging reality since the current political divide will show there is no love lost between the administration and the opposition , what with embattled opposition Sen . Leila de Lima going on an international roadshow hoping to court sympathy in her fight against Duterte .
That De Lima chose to bring her fight in the international political theater is in itself a clear manifestation of the losing cause the Opposition is facing against Duterte whose satisfaction and popularity ratings remain in the upper band of public opinion .
There are at least three factors why Duterte can govern between now and the time he ends his term with nary any doubt , threat nor danger of being ousted , removed from office unless he does it himself at his own time and pace . What are these factors ?
First , the situation today is never even near to what it was in 1985 although there are attempts to demonize Duterte in the way the late Ferdinand E . Marcos was demonized by the US-backed Opposition over a five year period beginning in 1981 when Martial Law was officially lifted up to 1986 when the Marcoses were shanghaied by the US and brought to Hawaii . The Opposition to Duterte ’ s mailed fist policy is by far led by at least two personalities – Senators Leila de Lima and Antonio Trillanes – both of whom do not command the kind of respect enjoyed by those who stood their ground against Marcos .
Second , there is an absence of a rallying point . In 1983 the death of Ninoy Aquino served as a rallying point for the Opposition to step up their protests against Marcos whose downtime as a result of his debilitating sickness was more than the times he was up to strategize against the wave of demonstrations being staged then .
Today , even the attempts of the Opposition to use the Extra Judicial Killings ( EJKs ) as a rallying point have not been embraced by the people who have been made aware of the ill effects of illegal drugs and seemed oblivious to the spate of deaths involving drug personalities . Furthermore , there is just no one from among the ranks of the Opposition who possess the
integrity and credibility of a leader whom the people can look up to .
In the years following the death of Ninoy Aquino in 1983 , his widow Cory Aquino became the symbol of the Opposition . And she was not alone for the ranks of the Opposition in those years were leaders whom the people trusted . Then there was of course His Eminence Jaime Cardinal Sin who became the voice of dissent . The Opposition today even suffers from an identity crisis as its leaders , for purposes of political expediency , have become part of what is now known in both houses of Congress as the political supermajority and none of these leaders of what is left of the Opposition has the charisma to rally the people to their cause .
Thirdly , Duterte in recent weeks successfully snatched away from the Opposition the momentum to pursue his governance without fear of any distraction and the Opposition is as much to blame for this scenario when it failed to muster the numbers to even present a credible stand to threaten the Duterte government on the two times that the Opposition organized a rally – on Nov . 25 , 2016 in protest against the burial of Marcos at the Libingan ng Bayani and on Nov . 30 , 2016 when the planned massive rally that the Opposition hoped could rattle Duterte fizzled out when only a little over 3,500 protesters came notwithstanding the fact that the rally was supported by no less than the heads of the three biggest universities in Metro Manila – Ateneo de Manila , University of the Philippines and the De La Salle University .
Like a true and tested political warrior , Duterte seized on this apparent weakness of the Opposition to generate public sympathy to its cause to launch his own counteroffensive using their friendly mainstream media and the social media which was the same medium that his strategists successfully used during the presidential campaign .
Up to today , Duterte remains in offensive mode announcing his administration ’ s policies to ( a ) provide free tuition in all State Universities and Colleges , ( b ) free irrigation for farmers , ( c ) complete health benefits for all Filipinos under the PhilHealth program , ( d ) free medicines for indigents and poor families , ( e ) graduated increase in benefits for retirees covered by the Social Security System , ( f ) immediate firing of erring government officials and personnel at the Bureau of Immigration , Land Transportation and Franchise Regulatory Board and at the Land Transportation Office , ( g ) new international airport
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