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?
No comments:
Post a Comment