The Philippines today faces dangers that have put millions of Filipinos in harm’s way, thereby limiting substantially their ability to stay financially and existentially afloat during these tumultuous times. The biggest danger of all to the country is the alarming surge in Covid-19 cases. The root problem of which charitably being the Duterte administration’s less than encouraging response.
The criticisms of Duterte’s handling of the Covid crisis are not a matter of duly seconded, loosely framed rhetoric on the part of what can be called the political opposition. The censure being provided as a counterpoint to the government’s publicly-presented, and often defensive, perception has been earnestly making the rounds among the Philippine punditry, media, and political class.
An example of the opprobrium being laid at the feet of President Duterte is the issue of Covid-19 vaccine distribution and the problems the administration has had in conducting it. Early on, Duterte officials proscribed against having a choice of which Covid vaccine one could take. Instead, officials got behind buying Sinovac vaccines from China without having the necessary data and clinical trials. Any medical expert worth their salt would balk at the public dispensation of any medication lacking full and dependable approval.
The fact that Duterte has been pushing for the usage of the China-produced Sinovac vaccine under these circumstances, while at the same time cautioning against vaccines from Europe and from the US, is unlikely to be a coincidence. I’m referring to suspicions that Duterte has somehow made himself beholden to Beijing and an anathema to the developed democracies.
The other pressing concern in connection to the management of the Covid virus is Duterte’s controversial decision to designate military officials to comprise the vanguard of the government’s National Action Plan (NAP) in battling the contagious malady.
Critics incredulously wondered why Duterte did not appoint medical experts, as opposed to military personnel, to take charge of what is obviously a national health crisis. There is an implication here that Duterte’s decision is to be taken as proof that his motives aren’t pure, that the president is living out his constitutionally last few years in office with the covert support of the military. If there is any truth to this, where it would lead to is any concerned citizen’s guess.
Duterte did little to quell doubters’ suspicions by rationalizing the prioritization of military men over medical officials. “You’re asking me: ‘Why are you so attached to those who were in the military?...This is a mechanical act. It is not a study of medicine. This is like a transaction in business.” He added “You need not be a doctor here because you are transacting a business. It is not really a matter of medical science you are talking of.”
Yet, could there be some storm clouds on the horizon for Duterte? In a possible sign of budding discontent, a majority of Filipinos questioned in a recent ASEAN Studies Center survey expressed their “disapproval” of the Duterte administration’s Covid approach. This statistical reproach amounted to 53.7% in the poll. As a further rebuke of the government, 72% of those surveyed were of the view that medical experts and related professionals should be given more credence by Duterte and his advisors, certainly more than people in the military.
After some five years in the presidency, Duterte has been able to escape the general opprobrium of the Philippine bodypolitik. It as if his administration has been hermetically-sealed from the wrath of public opinion in the wake of his brutal drug war which has killed thousands, his fecklessness in forestalling China’s territory-grabbing in the South China Sea, and his incompetent performance in the anti-Covid campaign. Can Duterte effectively navigate these troubled times and still come off smelling like a rose yet again to the Filipino people?
The Duterte administration’s mistakes, from being disingenuous about how it “excellently”, according to Malacañang Palace spokesman Harry Roque, enacted what there was of a rational and responsible Covid strategy, to Duterte’s painfully belated recognition of the urgency of economical Covid testing, to his dereliction in procuring in advance vital Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, are political and socially laden with a spirit of popular disenchantment.
Duterte thus should not treat his unacknowledged missteps as banal, innocuous errors in judgments that can be easily dismissed or denied.
Distressingly, we should have seen this will to failure coming ever since Duterte’s inauguration day in June of 2016. In many historical models of modern populist leadership, form and style tends to hold sway over content and substance, masking in the process an elected politician’s lack of proper qualifications to be a national leader——in a sometimes unwieldy democracy such as the Philippines no less.
The dread that comes with the rise to power of an unfit, reactionary-minded populist is never unfounded. Many apologists and denialists played down the risks of a Duterte presidency as his public relations apparatus and political machinery exerted a resounding influence on millions of highly-malleable Filipino voters.
Now the bill for such nonsensical short-sightedness has come due. Millions of Filipinos are suffering terribly-—and needlessly—-as a result.
Whether you are a medical professional, a social media entrepreneur, a food takeout driver, a devoted adherent of Christianity, or any other type of exemplary Filipino taxpayer, even the virtues of a saint cannot protect you from the morally-contaminated and in nearly every respect, the perfect imperfections of the Duterte regime.
Like I said, we should have seen this coming.
#DutertePalpak
ALLEN GABORRO
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