So Whimsical! So Insecure!

When the breaking news came out on Sunday night that President Duterte has fired VP Leni as the drug czar, the first thoughts that raced to my mind was: How whimsical! How insecure!

 It was uncalled for when he challenged VP Leni to take over his flagship war on drugs when she bared it as a failure in an interview. Stung by the criticism, he challenged her to take over the program for six months and be the drug czar herself if she could do better. He even appointed her to the position as a co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD) on October 28. To give her time to do the job, he said that she could stay on for the rest of his term as president. And now, barely three weeks from that appointment he fired her. Is he leading or is he being led by his whims? He claims that he does not trust her. Why did he appoint her in the first place? Maybe he misjudged her wisdom and her courage. She took on the challenge, and with energy! Now he backs off when she is already making strides.

Or is Duterte insecure? He claims that she had not done anything. But no, she was fast. In just two weeks VP Leni had talked to the police, and to various groups to get information. She is known to be a person who is in touch with the ground, going to those in the fringes of society. She is consultative, so she spoke to US and UN officials who are into this problem. Illegal drugs are not just a problem of the Philippines. It is a world-wide problem needing cooperation from all, which Duterte does not do. He is closed minded. He thinks his solution is the only one, even though he cannot show any success except the body counts of those he and his minions have killed. He has not eliminated the drug problem in his native Davao City in the 20 years that he had employed his technique of using Death Squads, nor does he succeed in his present ways in spite of thousands who have been liquidated, most of whom are the poor and the defenseless.

Yes, Duterte is insecure, especially of women of grit. This is shown by the way he keeps Sen. Leila de Lima in jail with trumped up charges, by the heavy-handed handling of Sr. Patricia Fox, by the unjust ouster of Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno. Now he could not stand VP Leni Robredo to be in his cabinet. So he back-pedalled by claiming that her appointment does not include a cabinet position. She is co-chairman and her co-chair would not share with her information which is vital to fight the drug menace. What are they afraid of? That the skeletons in their closet would be seen? People have long been suspecting that there is something fishy in Duterte’s version of War on Drugs. This suspicion is being confirmed by this secrecy. What they are keeping are not state secrets but secrets of Duterte!

I pity Duterte’s spokespersons. They are appearing ridiculous to make sense of the whimsical moves of their patron. And because they are whimsical, they are unpredictable and illogical. How can one put logic in what is illogical?  But we, can we trust a leader who is so whimsical and so insecure?

Protest Against Red-Tagging

EVERYONE has a right to his/her good name. If this is true for each individual person, it is more so for groups and institutions. To accuse a whole institution in public, and much more, in an official government hearing, and by no less than a government body which is supposed to be reputable, without irrefutable evidence, is the height of malice. One cannot just name-drop an institution because institutions have many supporters, self-less workers, and admirable activities. Red-tagging is one such practice, and it is being done by the military and police institutions to persons and institutions who do not toe the line of the government, and who expose their human rights abuses, or who empower people to speak out against projects that do not promote the good of the ordinary people and the environment.

On November 5, Major General Reuben S. Basiao, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence of the Department of National Defense (DND) gave a briefing on the security situation of the country to the Committee on National Defense in a committee hearing in Congress. Present in the hearing was no less than Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana. It is an official affair. There was a presentation of “front organizations” that provide fund generation to the CPP-NDF-NPA which is considered a Communist Terrorist Group (CTG) by the government.

  

The unfounded inclusion of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP) in the list of the alleged “communist front organizations” is a threat not only to particular Christian churches but to the role of religion in society in general.

NCCP is one of the leading faith-based and humanitarian organizations in the country that respond to the needs and concerns of people. Its social action arm is committed to delivering humanitarian aid and social services especially to the least and most abandoned. The NCCP is made up of mainline Protestant Churches which stand firm promoting peace and unity, the protection of the dignity of life, and the respect for human rights in their proclamation of Christ as Saviour and Lord.

Among the more than 50 organizations and institutions, both local and international, which the military claims “wittingly or unwittingly” aid the CTG are also reputable groups that work in the country to help the poor and the victims of natural calamities, especially Typhoon Yolanda. They named the Diocesan Social Action Center of Kalibo, Caritas Australia, Caritas Austria, Caritas Belgium, Caritas Switzerland, Save the Children Foundation, Bread for the World, Oxfam International, Swedish Red Cross, Mercy Relief, just to name a few of the more prominent ones.

It is inherent to the churches and the aid organizations to provide help to everyone who is in need especially in times of disaster, regardless of political or religious beliefs. We do not ask a victim of a calamity if he or she is a communist before giving assistance.

Faith-based institutions, and humanitarian and development organizations, should be encouraged and supported by the government. They are doing what the government cannot do, or they do better, faster and with less wastage than what the government is mandated to do.

Stop the practice of red-tagging! If their intelligence, if they have one, indicate that a person or a group is engaged in illegal activities, then bring them to court rather than flaunting their name as supporting communist terrorists. Everyone has a right to their good name!

Support Needed

(Photo courtesy of CHARLIE VILLEGAS/OVP)

President Duterte has formally offered Vice-President Leni Robredo the post to be the co-chairperson of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD). This means that she would  share with Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) chief Aaron Aquino the task of the anti-drug czar. Many people doubt the sincerity of the administration in this offer. It may be Duterte’s way of washing his hands at the failure of his own version of anti-drug campaign. It may even be a way to show to the people how incapable VP Leni is, because to stop the drug problem is an impossible task in such a short time. The government may even block her efforts along the way to prevent her from making any headway. There is so much mistrust in this government that people cannot help make conjectures.

VP Leni is well aware of the problems, as she herself stated in her acceptance speech. She said she is ready for all these just to stop the killings of the current model of drug war. In this her purpose is laudable; each human life is important. Furthermore, it should be clear by now, after two and a half years of killings of lowly people, having victimized about 6,000 people (according to police accounts, but more than 20,000 people according to several studies), that this violent mode is not working. Drugs are still in our streets. Killing is not the solution!

The Vice President deserves the support of everyone if the drug problem is to be addressed in a holistic way. It is a health issue, a poverty issue, an education issue, an employment and livelihood issue, a corruption and good governance issue, and also a police issue. Now is the time for those who criticized the killings to come out to contribute to solve the drug problem. I think we all agree that there is a big drug problem in our country. Now let us put our acts together since we have a person in charge who is ready to listen and to enlist the contributions of all, and is not bent only on a narrow one-sided view that the drug problem is just a criminal issue.

Helping and supporting VP Leni in this urgent task, however, does not mean that we will go all along with this administration, and not even with all that she would do. We remain vigilant that human rights and human life are respected. We always demand accountability and those who do wrong should be made to answer for their misdeeds as the law provides. We support the program and we work for the common good, and are not to be blinded by loyalty to persons. As always, we are guided by the principle of critical collaboration. We work together and support what is for the good. This means that the aim is good and the means are good. But when something that is abusive and untruthful is done, we criticize and denounce. No loyalty to persons. We serve God alone, thus we serve what is good, what is just and what is true!