Critics of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte are denigrating Filipinos who voted for him in 2016. They are pointing out that Duterte’s promise to eradicate criminality in six months had failed and is now handing over a poisoned chalice to “vice president” Leni Robredo. Moreover they are taking this as a point around which they assert how wrong Filipinos were in voting Duterte into office.
Some people, especially the yellows, are wrong in their analysis. It is they who are gullible in believing and holding Duterte to his promise to fix criminality in 6 months. Rational people understand that it is an ongoing problem that needs to be managed ongoing. A lot of people, in fact, attest to observations that the crime rate had since gone down.
What makes these yellow bozos think the voters believed him when he said he can solve criminality in six months? It hasn’t occurred to them that it wasn’t so much the timeline but more the acknowledgment that there is a problem and doing something about it.
I actually wrote an article during his campaign questioning his ability to apply what he did in Davao City on a national scale if he is elected president. Pretty sure a lot of people didn’t think it was possible to fix it in such a short time but they voted for him anyway because he acknowledged the problem and was going to do something.
The question now is, how can Duterte as President prevent the bribery of members of the law enforcement agencies including the judges in municipal courts on a national scale? It would be impossible for him to monitor everyone’s actions especially since he will also have to divide his time fixing and upgrading the country’s economy and infrastructure. It is only fair to ask him realistic questions since he finally decided to join the fray in the presidential elections.
Will Duterte be enough of a father figure to inspire everyone in the country especially the people running the justice system to behave? Or does he need to point a gun on everyone’s groin for them to develop a conscience? That indeed, remains to be seen.
Now here comes “vice president” Leni Robredo already taking credit for an operation that was most likely in progress even before Duterte thought of offering her the role as co-chair of the anti-drug war. It was only two days ago when she said she still needed data to get her head around the job at hand.
There is room to be circumspect in the issue of crime and law enforcement in the Philippines. The Opposition, however, rather than focus on the issue, have turned the conversation around it into a political circus.
In life, things are not always what they seem.