PRESUMPTIVE president Rodrigo Duterte may treat Catholic Church leaders like dirt, but he can’t keep off following their style.
He, too, has his own list of ten commandments, some entertaining/or eyebrow-raising, but worth monitoring, particularly in their manner of implementation.
Some commandments are stand-alones; others like awesome twosomes, reminiscent of the activist line “You’re either part of the solution or part of the problem.”
Take the commandment on curfew for minors. Duterte wants all minors to be home by 10 p.m., or arrests will follow. But minors being minors, their parents will be arrested in their stead.
Barangay tanods should, thus, know where these minors live. If tanods are slackers during their watch, Duterte will terminate them. Double whammy!
The speed limit for the long Edsa stretch is 60 kph. “Pag hindi nakita ng police,” Duterte says, “habulin ko ang police.”
Videoke gathering, particularly the loud bleating of music which sends our heartbeat on overdrive, should stop by 10 p.m. Neighbors, especially the children, must enjoy God’s gift of sleep.
Otherwise? El president left this as a stand-alone.
This one I particularly like. Duterte expects document processing to wake up from their stupor. All government institutions, clearances, and business permits must be released in 72 hours.
If longer, “I will ask why. It must be applied in all departments in the entire country. We have our computers. If you don’t want to work, sabihin nyo dahil maraming naghahanap ng trabaho.” Awesome!
Now, just how will this be monitored? A performance management audit team composed of employees from the same government agency? Who, pray tell, will audit the auditors?
Or will connivance continue to reign supreme? We know too well how slow government processing of documents can be. Between 11:30 and 12 noon, you see empty tables while the poor customers wait ad nauseum for the return of the government employee to his desk.
By near noon, though, government employees are either milling around ambulant peddlers picking out their lunch, or hastily forming a beeline for the canteen.
So, customers turn blue while waiting for the employees to reestablish their almighty presence.
Corrupt officials, Duterte said, should resign or retire. If those facing lawsuits refuse to do so, they will be sent to Abu Sayyaf territories for combat duty. If they’re captured, they won’t be rescued.
While this sounds dramatically Dirty Harry-ish, the presumptive president surely knows that transfers of employees for disciplinary reasons require due process.
Unless, of course, Duterte now throws the Civil Service Commission also into the same fold as the Catholic Church, the Congress, and the Commission on Human Rights as non-entities, simply because he listens only to the citizens.
But if he continues to run roughshod on all these and other groups with legitimate reasons to disagree with him, his supporters will dwindle.
And this case of lost love will not be new. All the Philippine presidents with resounding support upon their assumption to office went through this route--Ferdinand Marcos Sr., Corazon Aquino, Erap Estrada, and now Noynoy Aquino.
(lelani.echaves@gmail.com)