[Newspoint] A forced choice

A choice seems being forced by circumstances on the nation. Concededly, it’s not an easy one to make, for neither alternative is palatable: a Marcos or a Duterte.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte are children of the nation’s most notorious presidents: Ferdinand Sr. was a murdering, plundering dictator (1972-1986); on the other hand, proving himself too hot to handle for his own nation’s courts, Rodrigo Duterte had to be handed over to the International Criminal Court for trial on charges of “crimes against humanity” for tens of thousands summarily killed during his presidency (2016-2022) and before that, as mayor of his home city of Davao. And now, Ferdinand Jr. and Sara are embroiled in scandals of their own.

Sara was impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of embezzlement for  hundreds of millions of pesos taken from her office budget. She managed, however, to escape reckoning, thanks to a Senate that shirked its duty as an impeachment court to try her.

On his part, Ferdinand Jr. has been caught in a web of corruption of a magnitude never seen before. Since it all happened on his watch, the lowest level of culpability that may be brought upon him is for negligence by command responsibility. A further mitigating circumstance is that it was he himself who, upon being confronted with audit findings, exposed the crime, in his State of the Nation Address in July. 

Follow-up investigations he himself also ordered have determined that, during his term alone, flood-control spending came to a trillion pesos, up to 25% of that lost to corruption. Favored private contractors shared the plunder with bid-riggers, budget allocators, fund releasers, and controllers — those would be public works engineers, members of Congress, executive department officials, and government auditors. 

Some cases have been filed with the graft court. No big names have been brought up for prosecution, although, for some of them, the cases are already with the ombudsman. It’s he who determines which cases deserve prosecution and are winnable, and he says he’s sure to send some up before Christmas.

The process thus seems good-paced enough; it’s been just three months and a half since Marcos got that process going. Indeed, he has been aligning his decisions and policies to the sentiment of an impatient, vigilant public. Still, he is thought not worthy enough to be cut some slack. True, having come under such pressure with just two and a half years left of his term, as lame a duck as he is, he is forced to good. 

But isn’t that good? Doesn’t it seem a more sensible and manageable option to allow a Marcos, so cornered, to finish his term, and to deal with him later — and deal with him decisively — than to oust him?

Ouster is in fact the option advocated by groups that include some from the far left and a number of retired military officers. Traditionally indoctrinated into ideologies that set them poles apart, those two groups may be linked by common strategy but certainly not by common cause. Whom do they have in mind wielding interim power? Under what terms, and how may those terms be guaranteed to be reasonable and enforceable? 

In any case, any extra-constitutional plot risks a mad scramble for the consequent power vacuum. And Sara, being first in the constitutional line of succession to the presidency and with organized and well-funded forces backing her, might just feel emboldened enough to take her chances. And with her trust rating on the decline, thus threatening to derail her all-but-declared run for the presidency in 2028, anxious energy could only incite her further. Such a self-centered, mindless adventure is only bound to contribute to the general chaos during and after a coup.

That’s why I felt a tingle of hope seeing Rafaela David among the organizers of the Trillion Peso March set for tomorrow. President of one of the nation’s most progressive political organizations, David is not averse to describing her Akbayan Citizens’ Action Party as social-democratic, positively left-wing, in a setting where, by orientation, any step leftward is generally taken gingerly, if taken at all. Yet, neither is she averse to offering her party’s hand rightward and grasping the hand of whomever common cause can be struck with.

In fact, when her turn came to speak at the press briefing for the march and named names left out by earlier speakers who preferred to generalize, I thought her voice a suitably bold addition to the alliance, which collects clergy, civil society, youth, workers, and politicians. This march would not be against President Marcos, I caught her saying, adding that Sara Duterte was not an acceptable alternative.

Intrigued, I tried to reach her for an affirmation and elucidation. She replied by email, and I quote her here in part: 

“Our call for justice and accountability will never be selective. Our urgent task is to chart the broadest and most democratic path outside of this crisis together with the people. As such, we advance three main calls: 1) Hold all corrupt officials accountable; 2) End all political dynasties; 3.) Stop all attempts at a military takeover/intervention, whether in support of Sara Duterte or through the creation of a pseudo-revolutionary government or a civil-military junta/transition council.”

It seems to me she and her Akbayan have made their choice. – Rappler.com