I FOUND the past week’s developments quite heartening.
There’s President Duterte declaring Vice President Leni Robredo as “incompetent” and never “ready to govern a country.”
Robredo always takes the high ground when the foul mouth speaks. This time she simply deflected the insult and just reminded him to fix the economy, instead of insulting her and God. Classy!
What could really have played in his mind is that Robredo is opposition, and is a woman. To chauvinists, being the latter is always unacceptable.
Except his daughter Sara, mayor of Davao City. Did he not once declare that the only person he thought capable of being president was his daughter “Inday Sara.”
In responding to Duterte’s taunt, Robredo took a dig, too, at Duterte’s minions who prove no better than his trigger-happy trolls and the fake news they continue to churn out.
There’s Budget chief Benjamin Diokno’s reaction, for instance, to the Filipinos’ protests against Train (Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion).
Meant to fund Duterte’s ambitious Build! Build! Build! marching orders, Train has instead pushed up the prices of fuel and basic commodities.
In his usual insensitiveness, Diokno chided the Filipinos for being cry babies. His fellow Filipinos talk of food for today, but he talks of hyacinth for tomorrow. Because he knows where his bread is buttered, he can only hear his boss’ cry, not the masses.”
Og namuyboy si Manong. Listen to him: “Look at the poorest 10%. You think they pay taxes? And how much do they get from the government? Free education, free health care, CCT (Conditional Cash Transfers), etc.”....“A big part of the population do not pay taxes.”
Yes, but they’re faster at knowing that rice or corn and other basic commodities now cost more. Because they market daily to cook the day’s meals, they see the dwindling buying power of the peso.
This experience is often lost on Diokno and other government officials. Staying longer in office desensitizes them further. After all, they get invited often to meetings where someone else foots the bill.
And especially when they have regulating functions such as LTFRB, LTO, Bureau of Customs, BIR, National Water Resources Board, NTC, Energy Regulatory Commission, CPA, etc., freebies are the order of the day. How could they ever understand how it is to leave the table still hungry?
Or worse, how it feels to be orphaned or widowed?
Yet, despite the spate of killings in Cebu and elsewhere, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque argues there is no culture of impunity, and the killings are not state-sponsored.
He can froth in the mouth but no one believes him, of course. Not even his former law firm, CenterLaw. It contends that Duterte’s withdrawing from the International Criminal Court only strengthened mpressions that his administration is evading accountability for human rights violations.
In a rare show of do or die, Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma unequivocally disagrees with Roque. Says the prelate, the “culture of impunity reigns.” End of conversation.