Soap opera

Watching the behavior of the dramatis personae of the soap opera now showing on the national stage moves one to wonder why they seem to think they are all this nation can offer by way of leadership. How did we come to this that they and their minions comport themselves seemingly without regard to their constituents’ intelligence, speechifying about the necessity of continuity and such, and in the middle of an ever-worsening pandemic yet?

President Duterte exhibits no compunction in announcing a planned run for the vice presidency in 2022, with his longtime minder running as No. 1. (What exactly was the point in the road when the neophyte senator Bong Go — until now distinguished primarily by his devotion to his “Tatay Digong” — suddenly acquire the rudiments of statecraft and merit such breathless accolades as that aired by Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, that he, Go, is “most qualified to lead the country as our next president”?) The President claims clarity in making the supposedly definitive announcement, as though troublesome kinks have finally been sorted out to enable him to make the “sacrifice” of heeding the clamor of his claque. In the process, he thumbs his nose at the ethical aspect of his planned run, the spirit of the 1987 Constitution be damned.

Then he throws bold qualifiers into the political pot, such as his withdrawing from the vice presidential race if his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, decides to gun for the presidency — at which point his mouthpiece Harry Roque mouths the “D” word and artfully intones that it is this delicate sensitivity that “dictates” presidential decisions, in this case to preclude the emergence of a Duterte-Duterte combine at the 2022 polls.

But there’s more to the spectacle, with Sara Duterte pitching slings and arrows from the family’s Davao stronghold, removing herself from her dad’s electoral musings and telling him and his minder to go at it by themselves. It’s a clever distancing act that may sit well with voters taken by her but leery of her old man and a future “Daughterte,” as online wags put it. Furthermore, she confides a certain unpleasantness with being in receipt of letters seeking her endorsement of the Go-Duterte tandem or a possible Sara-Bong duet, suggesting an estrangement deeper than rumored. (There’s the added complication of awkward family arrangements, after all—still another argument for the passage of a divorce bill.)

Yet what do all these scenes amount to but an entertaining diversion from the current health crisis — with the Philippines listed among the six countries worldwide at special risk of COVID-19 and breaching the 22,000 mark in daily infections — and its health care workers forced to engage in protest actions to push their claim to benefits due them under the law?

In a recent late-night address to the public, as though his 2022 run and eventual victory were a cinch, the President said that as vice president he would audit the Commission on Audit and all other government agencies including his own VP office. It appeared to be a continuation of his harangue against state auditors whose monitoring report for 2020 includes the finding of questionable transactions and fund transfers at the Department of Health, which his friend and ally, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, remains hard put to explain. At the ongoing Senate blue ribbon inquiry into disturbing issues such as the DOH’s transfer of P42 billion to the Procurement System of the Department of Budget and Management, the plot thickens by the day.

Now Go, until lately modestly expressing disinterest in seeking the presidency, has formally declined the ruling PDP-Laban’s endorsement of him as standard-bearer in 2022. The senator and the Davao City mayor have also since exchanged statements denying bad blood and claiming amicable relations. Whether all this will stand in the Philippine political setting where pronouncements are never writ in stone is, to put it tritely, anybody’s guess. As Roque gaily states, “Alam ninyo, nothing is final ‘no until October,” when candidacies are formally filed.

But there is more at stake for the public in the continuing Senate hearings into possible plunder in procurement, as well as in the health care workers’ long-running struggle for their rights, than in the twists and turns of this soap opera. Roque says the Dutertes should be given “breathing space” to think their political plans through. Quite right. Then they should take this “family matter” off the stage.