Original Posting February 22, 2017
Can a regime seemingly so popular be really so unstable? Or are we about to witness a new kind of stability? Little known facts give more than a hint at a real explanation.
The Year-End Editorial of the Manila Times which was entitled, “In the Open, A Government Effort to Make Our Country Communist” quite understandably made most Gardeners laugh: “What? At this time and age? You must be kidding!” One could not blame them, for ours is, indeed, a “post-truth” era, a term where, according to Oxford Dictionaries, “objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” The term came up in everyday language, the Dictionaries said, because of the “rise of the social media as a source of information and the growing mistrust in relation to facts presented by the Establishment.”
So, the Times (Manila) was contrapuntal when on the eve of a new year it intoned: “There is more than abundant reason for this newspaper and the nation to be concerned that a reported paper by former Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg on how to deal with the Duterte government in the next 18 months has now provided President Rodrigo Duterte and his Leftist colleagues in the Cabinet not only a convenient excuse to intensify their political attacks against the United States, which remains a friendly government, but more than that, a smokescreen to cover concrete and dangerous moves to fast-track the intended communization [sic] of the six-month-old government.
“We take very seriously the observations made in his Friday column by Times columnist Francisco S. Tatad, a former senator and Cabinet minister, who has identified Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. as the moving force behind this extremely dangerous project. Evasco is an ex-priest, ex-rebel and ex-mayor (of Maribojoc, Bohol), who served as Duterte’s campaign manager in the last election, and ended as Cabinet Secretary after the position of Executive Secretary went to a lawyer-friend from San Beda College of Law, Salvador Medialdea.
“The position of Cabinet Secretary is in principle an innocuous one. And for a while Evasco looked perfectly powerless, harmless and purely ornamental in that position. But in one dramatic move, Duterte put him in charge of the ‘supervision’ of 12 strategic agencies, with access to billions of pesos in operational funds and a direct constituency of millions of people, notably the poor. These included the Cooperative Development Authority, the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council, the National Anti-Poverty Commission, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, the National Food Authority, the National Youth Commission, the Presidential Action Center, Office of the President, the Philippine Commission on Women, the Philippine Coconut Authority, the Philippine Commission on the Urban Poor, the Technical Education Skills Development Authority.
“These agencies used to function directly under the President, who, under the Constitution, exercises ‘control of all the executive departments, bureaus, and offices.’ By putting Evasco on top of these critical agencies, including the HUDCC, which was headed by Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo until she was sacked from the Cabinet, Duterte made him more powerful than any Cabinet member—-more powerful than the Vice President. This did not necessarily make him a dangerous man. What made him a dangerous man——in fact the most dangerous man in the administration——is his command and control of the communist cluster within the government, and his unimpeded effort to make this group the dominant force in government.
“In the beginning, the public was made to believe only four communists or communist recommendees had been appointed to the Cabinet, without the benefit of a peace agreement with the CPP/NPA/NDF. These included Evasco, Rafael Mariano of the Department of Agrarian Reform, Judy Taguiwalo of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, and Silvestre Bello of the Department of Labor. Tatad’s subsequent expose revealed that even the Executive Secretary Medialdea was also a full CPP member, and several undersecretaries and heads of agencies, like Delfin ‘Dale’ Cabrera, were also CPP members. Tatad’s latest expose has revealed that all of the regional coordinators of Evasco’s Kilusang Pagbabago (Movement for Change), which has begun its open organizational activities nationwide, are also CPP members.
“There is nothing clandestine about any of these,” the Times editorial emphasized. “Evasco’s organizing activity is out in the open. Government funds and facilities are being used to support the KP’s nationwide activities. Duterte has openly proclaimed his preference for a revolutionary government and the methods he has used in his war on drugs are fully in accord with his preferred government. A communist coup by Evasco is a declared objective. All these must be clear to us at this stage.” Still and withal many Gardeners could not “dig it.” What was the famous epistemological query: “How many facts make up the truth?” seemed operative anew as Gardeners quite skeptically read on and discussed the recited facts.
“Because of the collapse of Soviet communism in 1991, and China’s shift to market economics even before that, most people, including Filipinos, no longer seem to think the communist danger still exists. But the recent parade by some 2,000 armed communist warriors in Davao to celebrate the 48th anniversary of the Communist Party of the Philippines, plus the demand for the release of communist prisoners by the government, tells us we cannot take anything for granted. Evasco himself has begun sending to his friends photos of himself sporting a Soviet cap with a red star in front, with all the implied message.
“Unless and until Duterte deals accordingly with Evasco and his activities, we have no choice but to hold him responsible for their consequences,” the last of last year’s Times editorials ended (December 31, 2016).
Then, on January 6th 2017, columnist Rigoberto Tiglao, a self-acknowledged former communist, wrote the following piece entitled, “Communists in Duterte’s Government – Good or Bad?”
“SINCE the communist insurgency started in the 1950s led by a Soviet-influenced Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas, President Duterte is the first president to have appointed not only former communist leaders but probably even active communist cadres as members of his Cabinet and as lower-ranking officials.
“His Cabinet Secretary—ranked as powerful as the Executive Secretary in Duterte’s Cabinet—is Leoncio Evasco, Jr., his former chief of staff for nearly a decade when he was Davao City mayor, who also supervises about 15 government agencies, including the powerful Philippine Coconut Authority, which during Marcos times was headed by the defense secretary, Juan Ponce Enrile. Evasco left the priesthood to join the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) in the 1970s, and in the 1980s was one of its top leaders in Mindanao, when that region became the center of the communist insurgency.
“Others are Social Welfare and Development Secretary Judy Taguiwalo, who in the 1980s was even a CPP central committee member; Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano, chairman of the communist peasant organization Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas; Anti-Poverty Commission head Liza Masa, a former representative of the Red Bayan Muna party; and Joel Maglungsod, a former NPA commander and Anakpawis party-list representative, as labor undersecretary. I am not sure if she retains her Marxist ideology, but Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis-Briones together with her husband was a member of the Soviet-influenced Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas. There are a few other communist former or active cadres in sub-secretary positions, although most of these haven’t publicly disclosed their past or present affiliations.
“While it was probably Evasco who convinced the President to get these communists into his government, I would think it was a brilliant move. Only this kind of irreverent President who doesn’t care what other people—or forces—think could have made so bold a move as appointing communists to high positions in his administration.
Five reasons
“First,” said Tiglao, “at least for those positions held by these cadres or former cadres, he won’t be worried about corruption. There are of course exceptions, and I know a few high-ranking communist party members in the 1970s who became corrupt and even turned to a life of crime, but communists are like the Iglesia ni Cristo faithful in the workplace: mostly incorruptible.” Now this set many Gardeners rolling in uncontrollable laughter (“incorruptible, eh?”). “Communists indeed have been the refutation of that dogma that only those who believe in a personal, powerful Deity would have high moral standards.
“Perhaps it is because of their extreme brainwashing and sense of membership in a community, akin I would surmise to that of the INC, that communists are known—which is ironic in view of their materialist philosophy—to be non-materialistic people.” One Gardener said that all this says more about the post-sophistication naiveté of Tiglao than about the much-vaunted incorruptibility of INC’s and communist cadres. Quipped an older Gardener: “I mean, come on, Bobi, where have you been all this while?”
“Second, Duterte would in effect be co-opting not only the communists who have been given posts in government but others in the insurgency. In effect, Duterte is telling them that there are other, more realistic and effective, ways of ‘serving the people’—the Maoist formulation of giving one’s life in devotion to the masses’ welfare—than armed struggle to establish the party’s dictatorship.
“These actually had been occurring since the late 1970s when many former communist cadres—either disillusioned over the party leadership, rebelling against the killings it had ordered, or losing faith that the New People’s Army would ever rout the Armed Forces of the Philippines—joined the mostly foreign-funded ‘nongovernment organizations’ to organize oppressed farmers for nonviolent political actions.
Join government
“Some also even decided to join government through their own efforts, as I [Tiglao]did when then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recruited me into her government in 2001. Indeed, I learned from that experience, as I think communists in Duterte’s administration will, that government is the most powerful institution to change people’s lives, and it is a difficult struggle to change it from being an instrument of the elite.
“The other more Machiavellian impact of getting communists to work in government is that after years of having a comfortable, rather normal way of life (compared to hiding in safe houses in the cities and in jungles in the mountains), even the most hardened communists become soft,[“still incorruptible?”] and will not return to armed struggle, to that kind of harsh life ever. This is especially so in the case of several cadres in the cities whose children are in convent schools like St. Scholastica’s.
“Have you heard of former communist party-list congressmen returning to the armed struggle? Even the CPP founder Jose Ma. Sison found a good excuse and, rather than return to his Red base here wherever it was, chose to spend the rest of his life in a capitalist welfare state that is the Netherlands.
“Third, putting communists in key positions in government is Duterte’s way of telling the insurgents: “You’ve been fighting for this and that for more than four decades. So, I give you the machinery and resources of government, let’s see you undertake agrarian reform, uplift laborers’ welfare, help the poor, make education serve the poor. So, if you can’t undertake even agrarian reform, why would the nation let you capture power?
“Fourth, Duterte in effect would have these communists in his government as his Fifth Column of sorts in the insurgency. After tasting power as high-ranking officials in government—even for instance having a driver and a car for the first time in their lives—these communists would find all the arguments and excuses for the CPP leadership not to break ties with the Duterte administration and to continue peace talks.
“The party spokesmen for instance threatened to get out of the peace talks if Duterte allowed Marcos to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. The strongman’s bones were buried anyway, and the party and its cadres just let the issue fade away.
Not risk-less
“Having communists of course is not a risk-less strategy. While communists in government will most likely be incorruptible, their revolutionary ethics would allow them to siphon off finances to the party’s cadres in the underground, and even to the New People’s Army, as allegedly happened in the case of government funds of Red party-list congressmen. Cadres and even NPAs could be given agrarian reform department IDs, for instance, so as to escape military dragnets.
“I don’t think though that such resources siphoned off by communists in government to the insurgents would be significant. Believe it or not, government regulations are so strict in the handling of finances and other resources, and lower-ranking, career officials who will be the ones releasing these moneys won’t risk losing their jobs.
“The biggest risk for Duterte is for those, especially the Yellow Cult and its Clerics planning to overthrow him through a coup d’état is to exploit his having communists in his Cabinet for black propaganda. They will claim that the President has become a puppet of godless communists, and therefore has to be overthrown by force.
“This in fact was what happened in Indonesia in 1965 when Lt. Gen. Suharto overthrew the duly elected Sukarno on the excuse that the latter had become a puppet of the Indonesian Communist Party. The trigger for Suharto’s coup d’état was the assassination of six generals by soldiers of the Presidential Guards, which to this day has been unexplained, but which was blamed on the communists. Suharto and his generals subsequently launched a pogrom against communists and everyone suspected to be communists that resulted in about 1 million Indonesians of Chinese ethnicity murdered.
“This also happened in Chile in 1973 when the leftist President Salvador Allende was overthrown in a coup led by General Augusto Pinochet, who claimed that the President wanted to establish a communist dictatorship. As in Indonesia, but on a much lower scale and intensity, the military rulers killed over 3,000 leftists.
“The United States government in both cases conspired in the overthrow of these democratically elected presidents, with its Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) role in propaganda and execution of the coups d’état established without a doubt by historians.”
On January 11th 2017 the original writer who “emphasized the obvious” calling attention to the political facts that were hardly hidden shared the following in his column:
“Are the communists no longer a security threat?
“In his first joint command conference of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police in Malacañang last week, President Rodrigo Duterte declared he wanted the notorious Abu Sayyaf Group ‘crushed.’ This should have been said on the first day of his administration. The bandit group has gotten away with various kidnappings and terrorist activities in Mindanao and is reported to have forged some inchoate ties with ISIS. DU30’s new directive allows a shift in his current peace and order drive, which since July 1 had zeroed in solely on illegal ‘drugs,’ resulting in over 6,000 drug suspects killed, amid an outcry on human rights abuses.
“DU30 should have gone much farther, though. For one, he could have made it clear whether or not the world’s oldest communist insurgency was still a threat to the Philippine state. He has already appointed CPP/NPA/NDF members to the Cabinet and sub-Cabinet, without an enabling peace agreement. And the peace talks between the government and the NDF have become a simulated process between NDF-1 and NDF-2. The communists are getting everything they want, without yielding anything to the government.
“The overall national security situation needs to be examined at greater depth. This should involve senior government leaders, statesmen and national and international security experts. Congress should also be actively involved, if we have a functioning and responsible Congress. But since Congress has reduced itself into a rubber stamp of the President, we have to dispense it from any serious responsibilities. The National Security Council, properly constituted, should take the lead in providing the necessary assessment. Private individuals, public intellectuals and academics should be free to offer their own thoughts.”
A Necessary Debate
“Through this column, I have tried to trigger a modest debate on this issue the past few weeks. I began by disclosing, by name, the Cabinet and other sub-Cabinet appointees from the CPP/NPA/NDF, starting with Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr., the ex-priest, ex-rebel, ex-mayor, who ran DU30’s presidential campaign, and now “supervises” at least 12 critical agencies related to the government’s anti-poverty program. Next to DU30, he has become the most powerful man in government, and is sometimes referred to in some circles as the ‘co-president.’
“Evasco has unveiled his plan to replace the existing government structure with a ‘socialist’ one, through his Kilusang Pagbabago (Movement for Change), which he has begun to organize as a political party, nationwide. Using public funds and facilities, he has appointed regional coordinators and other officers for the KP all over the country, who are all members of the CPP. The overall plan, as gleaned from the existing literature, envisages the establishment of a communist revolutionary government to replace the constitutional government and install a communist dictatorship. This may seem unreal to many, but Evasco evidently believes in it.
“Evasco and Malacanang have managed to pretend that no one has publicly expressed serious concern about his activities. But two of my distinguished columnist-colleagues have weighed in to contribute their thoughts. In his Jan. 6, 2017 column, Rigoberto D. Tiglao, a former CPP member, asks, “Communists in Duterte’s gov’t: Good or bad?” He approves of DU30 appointing communists to the Cabinet even without a peace agreement with the CPP/NPA/NDF, and expresses confidence that the appointees will not be corrupt. ‘Communists are like the Iglesia ni Cristo, faithful in the workplace: mostly incorruptible,’ writes my esteemed friend.
Communists As Honest As The INC?
“This should be music to the Evasco and the INC, which was recently rocked by some street demonstrations arising from some internal controversies. However, early reports say that a group has been set up near Atrium building in Makati, allegedly with the blessings of Evasco’s colleagues, to help facilitate transactions with the government at a maximum fee of ‘15 percent.’ They bill themselves as an ‘incorrupt’ and transparent group because they say that ‘the going rate for facilitating government transactions starts at 30 percent.’
“‘The biggest risk for Duterte,” Tiglao continues, “is for those, especially the Yellow Cult and the Clerics planning to overthrow him through a coup d’état is to exploit his having communists in his Cabinet for black propaganda. They will claim that the President has become a puppet of godless communists, and therefore has to be overthrown by force.’ Tiglao seems to see no chance for such a coup, nor for Evasco’s dream of turning the Philippines into a communist state.
“Likewise, in his Jan. 8, 2017 column, “Charting the course off a confused revolution,” the redoubtable Mauro Gia Samonte, also a former communist, does not believe Evasco would succeed. But he warns: ‘The real danger consists in this: that given the powers and prerogatives Evasco must have consolidated in his hands through his effective control of those 12 agencies named by Senator Tatad, he must be out to grab more such powers and prerogatives by which he may eventually delude himself that he could embark on an armed power grab. Unless he succeeds, too, in integrating the entire Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) into the NPA, that power grab cannot be had except through a civil war.’
“For its part, The Manila Times in its New Year’s editorial expressed serious concern over my revelations and urged DU30 to deal with Evasco with finality, or be held responsible for the consequences. A Filipino friend in the West Coast said the editorial, along with my columns on Evasco, have gone viral among US-based Filipinos. They are worried.”
The Erdogan model
“The average political and military observer doubts the NPA will ever be in a position, now or in the future, to overwhelm the combined strength of the military and the police. But former Defense Secretary and National Security Adviser Norberto B. Gonzales is worried that if Evasco’s mass indoctrination program (through the KP and its spy system called ‘masa masid’) succeeds, DU30 would be free to do whatever he wants, even without the support of the armed forces. He can do what Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did when confronted by a military coup, Gonzales said in an interview on my GNN weekly show last Sunday. He recalled that Erdogan thwarted a coup by mobilizing ‘the people’ against the armed forces.
“In Gonzales’s opinion, to underestimate Evasco at this point would be a serious mistake.
“It appears that aside from controlling the 12 critical agencies which DU30 has put directly under him, Evasco would like to extend his reach deeper into the economy, as columnist Samonte fears he might. Highly informed sources tell us that Evasco is pressing for a local banker, who is also a CPP member, to be appointed Governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank) when Gov. Amando Tetangco retires in a few months. Evasco’s alleged candidate is now the President and CEO of a fast-growing local bank. One of the reasons Evasco is reportedly pressing for the CPP banker’s appointment is because he would like to block the appointment of Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr. to the same position.”
Months earlier, November 15, 2016, the same writer had already asked, “Evasco now moving for a revolutionary Govt?”
No Constitutional Basis
“On Duterte’s announced threat to suspend the privilege of habeas corpus should criminality and the illegal drugs traffic go out of hand, this is most unfortunate because he is an experienced lawyer who ought to be familiar with the Constitution, whose language is very simple and very clear. He should have seen that there is no constitutional basis to consider the possibility of a suspension of the writ.
“Section 17 of Article VII provides that the President shall be the Commander-in-Chief of all armed forces of the Philippines. Whenever it becomes necessary, he may call out such armed forces to prevent or suppress lawless violence, invasion or rebellion. In case of invasion or rebellion, when the public safety requires it, he may, for a period not exceeding 60 days, suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus or place the Philippines or any part thereof under martial law.
“Within 48 hours thereafter, he shall submit a report in person or in writing to the Congress which, voting jointly, by a vote of at least a majority of all its members in regular or special session, may revoke such proclamation or suspension. This revocation cannot be set aside by the President. Upon the petition of any citizen, the Supreme Court may review the proclamation or suspension. The suspension of the writ shall apply only to persons judicially charged for rebellion or offenses inherent in or strictly in connection with invasion. Any person arrested or detained during the suspension of the writ shall be released if he is not judicially charged within three days.
“Why is there no basis for PDU30 to be mooting the possible suspension of the writ?
No Invasion, No Rebellion, Public Safety Does Not Require It
Because the country has not been invaded, no nationwide rebellion exists, and obviously public safety does not require it. In reality, a communist rebellion exists, and a Moro Islamic rebellion exists. But the government has declared a ceasefire and is now engaged in negotiations with the CPP/NPA/NDF and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. In fact, DU30 has appointed communist rebels to the Cabinet and some agencies even before concluding a formal agreement with the Left.
“He has also released communist political prisoners and taken initial steps to implement the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro and the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro despite a petition filed by the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa), some bishops and others, including this writer, questioning the constitutionality of the CAB and FAB before the Supreme Court. In addition, he has announced the creation of the “Philippine Constabulary” where he reportedly intends to put former communist and Moro guerrillas to constitute his personal army.
So no rebellion could be invoked to justify any talk of suspending the writ. The most DU30 could do is to say that some of his security advisers had broached the idea, but that, fully aware of what the Constitution says and the actual situation on the ground, he had quickly quashed it. Since he has not done this, perhaps Communications Secretary Martin Andanar or spokesman Ernesto Abella could come to his rescue. Someone in the Cabinet must take the bullet for him.
Support for Revolutionary Govt
“The problem, though, is that word is already out that Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr., pillar of the Kilusang Pagbabago and said to be DU30’s communist-in-chief, has already begun the preparatory work towards the establishment of a ‘revolutionary government’ and that the suspension of the writ is supposed to be one of the necessary first steps. If this is true, it needs a serious rethink. On June 30, a quick survey by Survey Ng Bayan showed that 42 percent of those polled were in favor of a revolutionary government, with 45 percent against.
“Many of those who oppose the idea are opposed not to the idea of a revolutionary government per se. In fact, many believe that given the right moral leadership and run by competent and upright men and women, it is the only thing that could allow a radical transformation of our hopelessly corrupt government and politics. But they fear the possibility of its being dominated by yesterday’s failed men and women, the communists. That fear is not likely to ebb so long as belief exists that these men and women now control the levers of power in the DU30 government, and their ultimate game plan is to turn the Philippines into a failed ‘socialist’ state.
Two weeks later, Nov. 30, 2016, the writer asked this question, “What’s the truth about DU30’s state of health?”
The Evasco Project
“Aside from DU30’s current war on drugs where more than 700,000 ‘users’ have surrendered to the police, and close to 5,000 [7000]suspects have been killed without due process or adequate documentation, Evasco’s project is the only one into which the government seems to have poured all the necessary time, energy and resources. This appears to have at least four major steps.
“First, the decision to appoint members of the CPP/NPA/NDF into the Cabinet and other agencies, ahead of any peace agreement, which is still being negotiated.
“Second, the decision to hold peace talks no longer between the NDF and the government panel as such, but rather between NDF-1 and NDF-2, to negotiate the terms of surrender for the Philippine government.
“Third, the massive use of government personnel and resources to organize the Kilusang Pagbabago (Movement for Change) as the communist-led political party that would help the ‘Supremo’ run the revolutionary government. The KP’s first massive nationwide activity is scheduled to be held in Manila today by a red-shirted mob brandishing the slogan, “Save the Republic.”
“Fourth, the conversion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, which is the protector of the people and the state under the Constitution, and components of the CPP/NPA/NDF into a revolutionary army to enforce the mandate of the dictatorship. The first step is the formation of the Philippine Constabulary as the equivalent of the Presidential Guard in some authoritarian governments.
“Since he came to power, DU30 has visited the various military camps, talking not just to the officers but to all the men, promising them salary raises and sharing with them ribald stories, in an apparent effort to gain their confidence and win their loyalty to the person of the President and Commander-in-Chief.
“Whether this is succeeding remains to be seen.”
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Revolutionaries who have seriously embarked on a project of capturing state power (not merely taking over some offices in government) consider themselves very lucky when the head of state, no less, is cooperative, willing to be used and raring to lead. Only one thing gives them the creeps: information on the leader’s ill health. The rush to beat a leader’s sure mortality has often been the cause of a failed project such as that of the Indonesian Communist Party’s vis-à-vis the sickly President Sukarno. It seems that the funny thing about revolution is that it succeeds only when one hurries slowly.
“What happened in Peru and in Malacanang? In Lima, Peru, we have it on the best authority that PDU30 passed out or ‘collapsed’ before his final APEC official dinner. This is why he failed to attend the dinner and the final commemorative shoot and had to be represented by Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay, Jr.
“Evasco and his Undersecretary Delfin “Dale” Cabrera were meeting with a private group in Malacañang when they received the urgent bulletin from Lima about what happened. I heard of this story on the same day but decided not to write about it then.
“Then two days ago, on Monday, it happened again. I had not intended to write about it, but although there was no breaking news report about it, Malacañang issued a lengthy denial. Communication Secretary Martin Andanar was quoted as saying ‘there’s nothing wrong with the President. We would like to assure our people that the President is in good physical and mental health. He is strong and agile and can stand the responsibilities and demands of the presidency.’
“Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella for his part explained that the President had to cancel previously approved meetings with some Bangladeshi officials, former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, former Chief Justice Renato Puno, Moro National Liberation Front founding chairman Nur Misuari and officers of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines because of some ‘pressing matters,’ which were not mentioned.
“It was normal for Andanar and Abella to deny what happened. They did it with conviction——and I don’t blame them—- for they were not at the Borloloy building when it happened.
“According to our best sources, it happened in the morning without any warning. The President was reportedly in a huddle with Evasco, Cabrera and Bong Go when he suddenly lost his balance. Cabrera caught him as he threatened to fall, and he was quickly assisted by the others. The President was then taken to infirmary where the doctors checked him.
“He appeared on TV later, where he looked well. But it is not enough for the press secretary and spokesman to issue a statement. There should be an official medical bulletin to inform the nation about the exact state of health of the President.
“With this incident known to those planning to impose a revolutionary government, they will now be working double time. If they believe the President could go anytime, they will want to be in place before anything happens. They cannot possibly allow the constitutionally mandated successor (Robredo) to take over in case the President goes, for that would throw them out of power, unless they are able to forge a new arrangement with the successor or they wage a violent struggle against him or her. This is where the nation should be now. We should act as one, to prevent the hijacking of the presidency and the constitutional order.”
International writer Walden Bello has remarked elsewhere that, “Duterte has been candid about his medical problems and his dependence on the drug fentanyl, a strongly addictive substance that is 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine and has the same effects as heroin. The age factor is not unimportant, considering that the President is turning 72. Hitler became chancellor at 44 and Mussolini became prime minister at 39. For the successful pursuit of an ambitious political project, one’s energy level is not unimportant.”
Actually, as Tatad added on Friday the 13th of January 2017, he should be even more candid than that. He should “start telling the nation when, and for what reason, fentanyl, which is reported to have caused so many deaths in many countries, was prescribed to him, and is he still taking it? The rest will be for the medical experts to tell us.
The More Important Issue
But important as the health issue is, DU30 must realize that the survival of his presidency will depend not only on his physical and mental state of health, but above all on the nation’s political, social and economic health. His war on drugs has deeply polarized the nation, and it will not be easy to make it whole again after this ‘war.’ But even as thousands of dead bodies pile up from the extra-judicial killings, there is no clear indication where DU30 is taking the nation, and what clear outcome he would like to see.
‘If this is a real war on drugs rather than on something else, a visiting friend from abroad points out, where is the Cosa Nostra, the Pablo Escobar or the Medellin cartel, where is the huge stash of heroin or even marijuana, and where is the money? Is this not a mere attempt to clean up the illegal drugs trade of all the small-time drug users and pushers in slippers in the country in order to make way for the big ones?
“On another plane, there is increasing paranoia about alleged coup plots against DU30. The most unintelligent stories point to Loida Nicolas Lewis, the rich New York-based widow, as a possible funder of a coup to install Vice President Leni Robredo. Both Lewis and Robredo are from Sorsogon, but like so many Democrats I know, Loida is mourning Hillary Clinton’s loss of the presidency. She is no George Soros, and can’t be in any mood to organize even a fund raiser.
“Indeed, there are so many rumors of a coup conspiracy against DU30. The most dangerous conspiracy, my foreign visitor reminds me, is the one you do not hear about, the one you do not see.” FINIS