QUEZON CITY – Despite campaign pledges to end crime, corruption, illegal drugs, and human trafficking within the first seven months of his administration, President Rodrigo Duterte admitted that even a full term would not enable him to deliver on his promises.
In the fourth part of the Ateneo School of Government’s Duterte at 5: The Duterte Administration By The Numbers, former Department of Education Secretary Edilberto de Jesus said the administration laid down critical National Security, Anti-Crime, and Anti-Corruption objectives but seriously underestimated the difficulty of achieving them and pursued policies and practices that made them more difficult to accomplish.
De Jesus noted that the government, for instance, allowed for the recycling of government officials, who are facing charges, and weakened measures that permitted greater public transparency on their performance.
“Fortunately, I do not have to make the assessment myself. President Duterte has accepted the fact that he has not done very well in this area. He has admitted that he is not going to be able to fulfill his promises,” de Jesus said in an interview with the Ateneo School of Government.
“There was a tendency to overestimate the capacity of the government to achieve his promises and to underestimate the challenges that he would have to overcome in order to make good on his promises,” he explained.
War on Drugs: Winning campaign move but underestimated real challenge
De Jesus explained that President Duterte’s campaign framed the War on Drugs as an existential security threat that would turn the country into a narco-state.
“The president overestimated, exaggerated, hyped up, the scale and gravity of the problem. Strategies that could be effective to control drugs within a city were difficult to implement on a national basis,” de Jesus explained.
Despite lessons of its failure in other countries, President Duterte persisted in this strategy.
“It was a winning campaign move. Ang kasamaang palad naman, iyong policy ay napatunayang hindi angkop doon sa problema ng droga. So, our problem is that, the government took drugs as mainly a law enforcement issue, when the experts are telling us that this is also a public health issue and an economic issue,” the Filipino educator said.
In 2018, the President noted that the problem of drugs will not end during his term. A year later, he said his policemen are at the brink of surrendering.
De Jesus also noted that the considerable powers granted to police officers in conducting the government’s anti-drugs campaign exposed weaknesses in the Philippine National Police.
Issues of abuse and corruption prompted responsible leaders in the PNP to call for deeper reforms in the organization and a recalibration of the anti-drugs campaign.
“Ito ay isang malaking problema na ating hinaharap. Ang nagiging epekto ng Drug War sa kapulisan mismo na maaaring marami ang naniniwala na makakalusot sila kahit papaano dahil sa mayroon silang ‘blank check’ sa kung anong kailangan nilang gawin. At iyong EJK ay lumaganap na rin kaya nabahala na rin ang DOJ. Hindi lamang nagiging biktima iyong mga drug addict suspects, nagiging biktima rin iyong mga leftist activists, iyong mga abogado ng leftist activists, “de Jesus said.
Duterte admin restored secrecy instead of fostering transparency
De Jesus noted that evidence of the continuing problem of corruption during the Duterte administration was its failure to sustain rankings in the country’s corruption perception, ease of doing business, and global competitiveness.
He explained that such failure resulted from a presidential approach that weakened proven guard-rails against corruption.
Like the previous Presidents, the Chief Executive from Davao City appointed government officials within his KKK or Kamag-anak, Kaklase, Ka-probinsya.
However, barely a year after his election, Duterte had to dismiss in short order five of his high KKK appointees-- the DILG Secretary, the Deputy Cabinet Undersecretary, the head of the National Irrigation Authority, and two Deputy Commissioners of the Bureau of Immigration.
“All five fired officials, as well as others who later had to resign under public pressure, were close to Duterte, but were exposed by whistle-blowers from their own institutions. Their separation from the service seemed to make good the president’s threat to dispose of officials tainted by even “a whiff of corruption.”
“But no investigation or charges followed from the sacking and the favorable impression gained by their dismissal quickly dissipated when they began surfacing in other government offices. Many of these officials were merely recycled and re-appointed to other positions.” De Jesus explained.
The author also pointed out that instead of fostering transparency, President Duterte restored secrecy in government by refusing to disclose his Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth.
“The [Duterte] family’s SALN for 2018 and subsequent years have not been disclosed, despite Freedom of Information requests for their release… New rules issued by [Ombudsman] Martires in September 2020 made SALN requests for “life-style checks” subject to the approval of an Ombudsman lawyer-evaluator. The new rules appeared designed to shroud rather than unveil official SALN records,” he said.
Despite the issuance of Executive Order 2 or the Freedom of Information Order, de Jesus said that the early attempt to push for greater freedom of information in government appeared to be a case of “ningas kugon”.
“This was not followed up by any clear effort to institutionalize FOI through legislation, and the commitment to greater transparency was also quickly dispelled and undermined by the President’s refusal to make his SALNs public, and the Ombudsman’s dogged support for this opaqueness when it comes to SALNs,” he stated on the report.
Lack of campaign promise and strategy in addressing the territorial dispute
De Jesus also emphasized that the territorial dispute in the West Philippine Sea was not among President Duterte’s campaign promises, yet the public still expected him to defend the country from China after stating in a debate that he would.
“The typical National Security concerns did not appear among the 15 items in Duterte’s Legacy Agenda... The silence in 2016 on the primordial, constitutional obligation to secure the country’s independence and patrimony against foreign threats was surprising. The Philippines had just won a decision in the U.N. Arbitral Court… The election debates among presidentiables had tabled this issue among the agenda,”
“But the Arbitral Award, almost universally acclaimed by the electorate, was won by the Aquino government and the opposition campaign understandably wanted to avoid giving attention to an issue that favored the administration and, therefore, its chosen candidate,” de Jesus explained.
The Philippine government’s pandemic response also complicates a genuine national security issue.
“The Philippines’ vaccine strategy reliant on supplies from the People’s Republic of China raises concerns about the country’s security in the West Philippine Sea. This is heightened by China’s repeated violations of the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic ZONE,” he said.
“China is basically an authoritarian and some would say a totalitarian system. They use all of the levers of government to promote their national security interests, which is natural. They will use soft power. They will use educational grants. They will use the media. They will use economic inducements in order to push their national interests. That's assumed,” de Jesus added.
De Jesus emphasized the lack of government strategy in addressing the national security issue in the West Philippine Sea.
“Our policy on this issue seems to depend simply on what the president thinks should be done. But he's leaving in a year or so. So, it's such a big problem. It is a long-term issue that generations of Filipinos will have to face. And it cannot depend just on the thinking of one person and his personal inclinations,” he said.
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