A friend and former colleague in the Department of Transportation and Communications, one of the true Edsa heroes who despite being an appointee of the Marcos government, led the assault upon the government media station in those dramatic four days of the people power revolt, Col. Mariano Santiago, reacted to the President’s strange pronouncement that he wants to resign his elected post.
“I can feel and I sympathize with the agonies, frustrations and disappointment of PRRD.
“He started out strong but is now sending a message that he cannot do what he promised, even suggesting a military junta that will swear before him.
“A military junta is effectively a military takeover that will remove him as commander-in-chief. That will be extra-constitutional although the AFP may conveniently invoke the AFP’s mission to protect the people and the State.
“I believe that PRRD should not despair. He has more than three years in his term to reverse the situation. He may have to change his style and strategy. He may have to “regroup and reorganize” his forces (his Cabinet or the people under them) and let them work.
“All he has to do is supervise and hold them accountable. A lot of his appointees are square pegs in round holes.
“It is good that he leads the way so the people under him would do their job and the private sector follow. The Boracay cleanup is a perfect example.
“At the moment, PRRD does all the talking and serves as “shock absorber” of his Cabinet. It should be the reverse. The Cabinet should absorb the shock for PRRD. He simply has to shoot orders and supervise their compliance.”
Mar, who if memory serves me right, was a PMA Class of 1967 graduate, and was a distinguished Land Transportation Office assistant secretary before retirement, has remained an idealist and advocate of good government since.
In his Facebook post, he understood perfectly the exasperation, nay, the frustration that President Rodrigo Duterte felt, just a little more than two years into his elected term that made him express those words in his usual extemporaneous speech.
It was a pained “cri de coeur,” as the French would say, a protest against a seemingly desperate situation.
My executive assistant here in Taiwan sadly remarked, after hearing the televised speech before a group of businessmen where PRRD agonized about the continuing malady of corruption, “wala na talagang pag-asa ang bansa natin,” to which I reacted, “kanya nga natin sinuportahan si Duterte, di ba?”
“If anyone can do it, it is he, and that is what we believed then. We still hold to that belief.”
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No, he is not giving up. He just bared his feelings, and the deep anguish of being unable to live up to what he thinks the public expects of him.
In fact, even those he subsequently mentioned in a meeting with the Kapisanan ng Brodkasters to be his ideal successors should he resign, Bongbong Marcos and Chiz Escudero did not take him seriously.
He made that statement in the wake of certain recent events: The discovery of P6.7 billion worth of methamphetamine conveniently concealed in a magnetic lifter, cargo shipped from Vietnam and trans-shipped from Kaohsiung, the better to hide traces of origin; the highest inflation index in the last five years, wrongly blamed on his Train law which is part of a comprehensive reform of our tax system; the devastating impact of externalities such as the unforeseen increase in the price of oil, even the foreseeable and infinitely preventable surge in rice prices, price leaders which have a cascading effect on inflation.
Any leader would cry out against the confluence of such events. Kamalasan lang ba? O kahinaan?
The Filipino people may understand the aspect of “kamalasan.” Our cultural upbringing adheres to concepts of “buenas” and “malas.”
Kamalasan lang na tumaas ang presyo ng langis alinsabay sa TRAIN; and even PRRD’s bright economic managers could not have foreseen how Donald Trump’s often irascible actions would impact on the world economy while strengthening the US dollar.
But the Filipino people do not attribute “kahinaan” to their president, on whom they continue to repose their faith, trust and confidence. Rarely have they seen greater political will and strength of character as they have witnessed in the past two years of this president.
But let us listen to Mar Santiago’s words, when he says that PRRD is the one who acts as “shock absorber” and mentions “square pegs in round holes” in the president’s administration.
President Duterte is mad, and acts quickly against corruption. Perhaps he should also be mad against incompetence and inefficiency.
