Aquino needs own commando force

The creeping downward movement of President Aquino’s approval rating is giving his critics’ spirits a lift. They see in it some light at the end of the tunnel, which buoys their outlook for 2013. Expect them to rev up their griping about his performance.

The Palace boys, especially the fellows in the communications group, may not show it but they must be having jitters.

Why the declining numbers?

P-Noy has been in Malacañang for two years. While abstract yardsticks have been good and hailed by the liberal community, concrete measures of progress haven’t been as tangible. Local and foreign businessmen are excited anew, the stock market is astir, and foreign rating agencies are waxing sanguine again. And yet, the masses are getting restless, with a little push from his critics.

The man is making life hard for government officials accustomed to having the national treasury as their milking cow. Government projects are said to now be clean, meaning the widespread practice of kickbacks and bribery has been exorcised from the system. Key public agencies, like the Metro Manila Development Authority, appear to be working earnestly to transform the metropolis into a less chaotic place. The Bureau of Internal Revenue is going after tax evaders like there is no tomorrow. Self-sufficiency in rice, an elusive Holy Grail so desperately sought by past presidents, may be in sight. P-Noy has commanded his Cabinet to perform—or else.

But why are his survey numbers dropping, to the delight of those who don’t like him? Is the people’s goodwill gone? Is the Ninoy/Cory halo atop his head fading?

The exertions of P-Noy and his people haven’t translated into improved incomes across the board, from the middle class to the dirt-poor. Commodities have yet to be more affordable to the masses. Except for the recent easing of gas prices because of lower demand in the wealthy countries, the cost of practically everything has been a continuing burden on the people, not only the really poor.

Despite overall bright economic indicators, prosperity is not knocking on the doors of those who really need it. As Inquirer columnist Cielito Habito has noted, the rising economic tide hasn’t lifted all boats. The poor are still poor.

Crime has been terrorizing communities. Street crimes, home burglaries and kidnappings have been filling newscasts and newspaper pages. Personal crimes—those that involve persons being robbed, molested or killed—appear to be on the rise, or at least are more visible, police claims to the contrary notwithstanding. When citizens are murdered for a mere cell phone, society must be alarmed, not only those who are often in the streets and, therefore, are vulnerable, but also those who seem to be safe in their gated enclaves.

P-Noy must crack the whip and sic the police on criminals. Crime may be happening on individual streets, in individual homes and in individual communities, but it’s a national problem, a societal scourge. Crack the whip, P-Noy must, especially because policemen themselves are said to carry out some or many of the crimes. If the police are too inept and helpless against criminals, P-Noy must find other ways to make our communities clean and the citizenry safe. He cannot simply wait for the police to do their job, he must make them do it.

In this connection, the continuing elusiveness of fugitives like the so-called “butcher” Jovito Palparan, suspected murder mastermind ex-Gov. Joel Reyes, and the hard-to-describe convicted murderer Ruben Ecleo is a nagging embarrassment to the President, like a nasty boil on his neck. The government’s failure to capture these high-profile suspects and others contributes significantly to the perception of the Aquino administration as inept. And now a Jordanian national has been kidnapped in Mindanao, further embarrassing local executives, the police and the national government. Justice has evaded the families of the missing Jonas Burgos and the two University of the Philippines coeds said to have been abducted by the military.

If the police can’t do the job, P-Noy should mobilize his own, personal SWAT-like force to track down criminals on the lam. Civil rights advocates may cavil about such an operation, but he has to do something. In any case, the commandos—or more accurately, the tracking team—will not take out the fugitives themselves; they’ll just sniff and stake out the latter’s whereabouts and then let the police capture them. All right, let’s not call them a commando force, let’s just call them trackers.

P-Noy has to be able to present Palparan, Reyes or Ecleo—better still, all of them—to the public soon. Or his survey numbers will continue to tumble.

And while he’s at it, P-Noy needs one or two trusted personal advisers who can be frank with him about what’s working and what’s not in his administration. He needs someone with savvy and gravitas to break down issues and problems for him, the better for him to make the right decisions on how to implement things.

Perhaps P-Noy already has some kind of setup that includes personal advisers who give him sage counsel on key issues. He may have in place action men (and women) as his personal posse or trackers to go after those who defy and dodge conventional police action. Despite what his critics say and spread, I believe that the President is no dummy.

But with Palparan et al. still at large and no police results so far, we can safely conclude that there is no such setup under P-Noy. Time to get cracking.

Leandro V. Coronel’s commentaries have appeared in a number of Manila dailies and are currently carried by Fil-Am newspapers in Washington and Toronto.