Rodrigo Roa Duterte is not the first mayor to become President of the Philippines. Joseph Estrada was mayor of San Juan; Emilio Aguinaldo was effectively mayor of Kawit (then called Cavite del Viejo) when he joined the Katipunan. But President Duterte is the first in our history to turn his experience as local chief executive into a campaign promise: He will govern the country the same way he governed Davao City. Today we mark the first anniversary of this extraordinary, ahistorical approach to governance.
Lawyer Tony La Viña, the former dean of the Ateneo School of Government, sums up the challenge facing Mr. Duterte thus: to act as mayor of an entire country, or to serve as president.
Part of this approach is quite literally personal; the President just likes the sound of “Mayor,” or as some of his staff still refer to him, “CM” (for city mayor). These are titles he is used to, having served as mayor for a total of seven three-year terms. Five months into his presidency, his special assistant sent a message to the staff of Cabinet secretaries to “inform your principal to address PRRD (President Rodrigo Roa Duterte) as ‘Mayor.’”
It is a preference in keeping with his simple tastes. He doesn’t stand on ceremony, has done away with honorifics like “Your Excellency,” and famously wears the barong Filipino only when he absolutely has to. He lives the same way he has for the last three decades; he keeps odd hours, keeps close tabs on people he knows, keeps lines of access open to almost anyone. He likes to get involved in problems, to find solutions; he gets bored with policy.
That is the word he uses often to describe his experience as a one-term congressman in 1998-2001: bored. He said he was bored to death then, because of course in Congress the work of representatives is to legislate, rather than to
execute the laws of the land. He sees himself, principally, as an executive.
As the country’s chief executive, President Duterte, like a benevolent patron, allows a lot of latitude to the members of his Cabinet and the leaders of his political coalition. Almost all of them have the freedom to do as they see fit; he gets involved in detailed fashion only when it comes to the issues closest to his heart and his mayorship: peace and order, crime, corruption.
This latitude explains why morale in his inner circle remains high, despite a bruising first year and despite working for someone who delights in himself being a bruiser. His allies and appointees believe, still, that they are in position to implement the right agenda for the country.
But this same latitude explains why serious infighting has now broken out among his allies: In the House, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, with whom he became good friends during his time in Congress, is on the warpath against Rep. Antonio “Tonyboy” Floirendo, and Majority Leader Rudy Fariñas is on a collision course with Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos. There was also the conflict between Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez and the President’s first appointee as environment secretary, Gina Lopez. The country has seen this kind of internecine politics, this early, at least
twice before: in the first year of the presidency of Corazon Aquino and of Aguinaldo. Both times, it did not turn out well.
Should Mr. Duterte intervene among his allies? This seems like a strange question to ask on the first anniversary of a consequential presidency. He is facing problems of the first magnitude: an extremist situation that threatens to turn into a festering crisis in the storied city of Marawi; a Moro secessionist movement that is frustrated at the lack
of resolution of the Bangsamoro issue; a communist insurgency that appears to be slipping away again from the always difficult path of negotiation; a trade in illegal drugs that seems to thrive despite the President’s signature antidrugs campaign; the human rights backlash (and inevitable historical reckoning) from the killing of thousands of mere suspects.
At the same time, he is engaged in important initiatives: a coming to terms with the dominant regional role of an ascendant China; a reconsideration of a century-old alliance with the United States; a massive campaign to build, build, build necessary infrastructure.
For his own sake then, and that of his agenda, he needs to stop the infighting. History is waiting.