THROUGHOUT the 2016 election campaign, he projected himself as left-leaning, or even Leftist. So, moving from one sortie to another, all photos showed him with a clenched fist.
He has prided himself as being the only Philippine president from the Left. Ascribing such socialist sympathies, he set himself off from the rest of his predecessors.
That he appointed into his Cabinet left-leaning members surprised no one. Judy Taguiwalo was social welfare secretary, while Rafael Mariano headed agrarian reform, and Liza Maza, the National Anti-Poverty Commission.
What was surprising was that there were no others.
Now that Taguiwalo and Mariano got the boot from the power-tripping Commission on Appointments (CA), we hear the detective suspense line, “and then there was one.”
The CA could not shun gossip. Wasn’t Mariano a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines? Didn’t Taguiwalo use her department’s resources for the NPA’s?
Their denials made no difference. It was clear from the twist and turn of CA members’ questions, even the smirks they couldn’t hide, that Taguiwalo and Mariano had not even a chinaman’s chance of passing through the eye of a needle.
So, when the inevitable did come to pass, and Taguiwalo and Mariano had to say goodbye to their posts, they gave the unsurprising response---show the clenched fist.
Characteristically, they were consistent from entry into their departments to exit time. But where was their president whom they had reposed their trust and confidence in leading this country to rescue the marginalized masses?
Oh, he still shows the clenched fist in public, but as events have revealed, this hand language is all for show now. No longer should it be understood as empathizing with the peasant class, their struggles and their dreams.
Mariano was the first ever who came from the peasant group to become agrarian reform chief. But whatever his dreams and reform plans, many of which the power-tripping CA found ambitious and no better than a pipe dream, lived a short life from his entry on July 1 to his exit.
That the left-leaning members struggled in the Cabinet was a foregone conclusion. It was clearly a mixed bag of politicians, career officials, businessmen, activists and retired military officials.
Any sitting president, regardless of initial pronouncements about being his own man, sooner than later realizes he cannot do without bridges to the uniformed members of the government.
Neither can he skip playing footsy with politicians. He must woo them for his pet programs, especially when he demands a budget by the trillions, including an unprecedented jump in his own office.
Remember now, intelligence funds are unreceipted and unaudited.
Duterte could only say “Sayang” about Taguiwalo and Mariano. But it paled in comparison to Taguiwalo’s somber response, “Mr. President I kept faith with you. Nalulungkot lang ako, kasi I don’t think you kept faith with me in the end.”
Faith? More like horse trading, methinks.