Serious or not, time to do away with drama

IT IS becoming clearer by the day that the job description of President Rodrigo Duterte’s Philippine National Police chief-designate and appointed secretaries is to be apologists—specifically relative to his controversial day-to-day utterances. (Let’s stop referring to him as the presumptive President or President-elect. He is the “President,” period.) They have not yet begun their terms and already they are at their wits’ end trying to explain what the President means every time he speaks. Their main argument? The President was misquoted or his statement was taken out of context, even though what he said and meant was as plain as day.

Duterte also admonished journalists and reporters to be clairvoyants and to determine for themselves if he is joking or serious whenever he makes a public statement.

Last June 9, in an interview with Pia Hontiveros of CNN Philippines, Duterte’s foreign secretary-designate, Perfecto Yasay Jr., made a spectacle of himself as he defended the President’s tirades against the United Nations, particularly Secretary General Ban Ki-moon who decried earlier his comments regarding extrajudicial killings. Yasay said the UN secretary general has no business commenting on a private citizen’s (meaning, Duterte’s) statements.

What, the President-elect is not to be taken to task as he has not yet taken his oath of office? It was a pathetic attempt—and Yasay cut a pathetic figure of himself—at defending the indefensible. Yasay kept on repeating that line of argument that Hontiveros had to cut him short, stating exactly that. Pity, I had so much respect for Yasay, a gentleman.

On another issue, the police chief-designate announced that, according to intelligence reports, drug lords have offered a P50-million bounty each on his and President Duterte’s head. If he were to be believed, I’d ask: If I were to kill him or the President, how would I get away with it? More important, how will I collect my money?

I believe him and the President when they say they will go all out to rid the country of drug trafficking and corruption and to work for a shift to a federal system of government. I wish him and his appointees success.

But let’s do away with the drama, please!

—ROBERT ALVAREZ HYNDMAN, Parañaque City