A collision of political headwinds

Strong headwinds from opposing political forces are in for a collision. Two sides of the country’s political forces have generated these headwinds, claiming that they are necessary for the ship of state to get back on sail. The contending forces similarly claim that the ship of state has run aground, but they lay the blame on different reasons.

Political forces led by President Duterte occupy one end of the ship. They assert that a serious national problem concerning illegal drugs is why the ship has run aground. They blame past administrations for allowing this problem to supposedly reach crisis proportions.

The headwinds released by the Duterte forces to get the ship sailing again are antidrug strategies. First, a bloody campaign is being waged against alleged drug traders and users, resulting in more than 7,000 deaths so far. Second, Sen. Leila de Lima has been arrested and will stand trial as the highest ranking public official accused of allowing illegal drugs to prosper in the country. Third, the revival of the death penalty is being railroaded in Congress for essentially drug-related crimes. Fourth, there is a plan to put stickers on “drug-free” homes based on the endorsement of barangay officials.

Forces opposed to Mr. Duterte’s methods of governance occupy the other end of the ship of state. They claim that the ship has run aground because of the violent means employed by Mr. Duterte in his war on drugs.

The headwinds released by these forces to get the ship sailing again include a revived exposé on the Duterte family’s alleged billions of pesos in unexplained bank deposits, as well as   explosive revelations on the President’s involvement in extrajudicial killings in Davao City when he was its mayor.

Aside from the thousands of dead bodies that continue to pile up every day, the kind of governance employed by the Duterte administration is seriously damaging the people’s civil and political rights. The people’s civil rights to life, liberty and security are constantly trampled upon. The people’s political rights to participate in government through institutions that provide checks and balances to abuses of the executive branch are also being severely compromised.

It is in the field of economic rights that the Duterte administration is perceived to be achieving improvements, with programs like free irrigation, expanded agricultural assistance, free education, wider free health coverage, and avowed plan to end labor contracting (“endo”), among others.

What might explain the continued strong support for Mr. Duterte is his perceived decisiveness in improving the economic rights of the working class. This probably explains why, despite the horrific violations of the people’s civil and political rights, his support base remains strong.

This should serve as a cautionary tale for the forces opposed to Mr. Duterte. Their efforts to expose him as a dreadful human rights violator may not be enough to win an exodus of converts from among his supporters. The anti-Duterte forces must additionally convince the people that they have economic programs better than Mr. Duterte’s.

The reason supporters of the President are zealously against those opposed to him is this: Among the anti-Duterte forces are parties and personalities perceived to have long ignored the economic wellbeing of the masses.

As President Duterte is made to answer for gross violations of civil and political rights, there is risk that he will resort to authoritarian rule. And if the anti-Duterte forces wrest control of the government, there is also the risk that, not having learned their lesson, they will resume merely paying lip service to the people’s urgent need for economic uplift.

In the approaching collision of political headwinds, whoever prevails between the contending forces will end up betraying the nation unless they genuinely work to respect and improve the full basket of civil, political and economic rights that the people expect and deserve.

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