In his rousing speech in a Mandaue City, Cebu indignation cum campaign rally for the candidates for senators of his PDP-Laban former President Rodrigo Duterte warned the audience – and the Filipinos in general – of the very strong possibility that President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. will do a Marcos, Sr. That is, he will declare martial law as Marcos, Jr. the son has also no intension of stepping down from the Presidency.
He also called on the armed forces not to “choose the wrong way” there being only two ways – the right way and the wrong. FPRRD emphasized that the military should not make a mistake of following a wrongful order by the President should he declare martial law. He further warned that if martial law is declared by Marcos, Jr. the country will be in chaos.
The former President’s tirades immediately generated an equally scathing rebuke from the Palace. No, it did not come from the incumbent President but from his Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin. The former Supreme Court magistrate denied Marcos, Jr. is entertaining plans to declare martial law and install himself as another dictator like his late father.
Bersamin also threw back the question who between the former President and the incumbent has the dictatorial tendency when the former chief executive showed no qualms in violating human rights in his bloody anti-illegal drugs campaign, and destroyed media establishment and harassed journalists with warnings and legal suits.
Question: Will Marcos, Jr. declare martial law? Will he risk his opportunity to redeem his family’s name that have been badly tarnished during the later years of his father’s regime?
The Filipinos have three more years to wait if indeed the President will prove his predecessor right. For now, we are not aware of any indication nor basis of the incumbent Malacanang tenant to duplicate his father.
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Here is this person writing a column and having the social media as his/her outlet. We are referring to the writer hiding his/her identity through its column title Optic Politics.
This person, in his/her latest piece said the Marcos, Jr.’s presidency is a laughing stock, hence the need for it to be replaced.
Of course the Filipinos know that the next Presidential elections is still three years away. So, she or he could not have any other option in mind but suggest to the people to do another EDSA. And who will be installed as Marcos, Jr.’s replacement if a People Power happens and succeeds in driving the incumbent out of Malacanang?
But honestly we are wondering who are laughing at the present Presidency. The streets in major cities of the country are empty of people from various sectors demonstrating against the President. Big businesses and industries are calm and composed. The labor sector is seemingly contented with what its members have and how they are treated by the present government.
Even the mainstream media are wanting in articles chastising the President and the policies it presently adopted.
What we are seeing, reading and hearing as serious attacks on the President and his administration are all coming from the now most active political opposition.
So far we have also not heard of foreign governments critical to the present leadership. And if there seems to be instability in the present government it is clearly because there are destabilizers from within who are somewhat in a hurry to have themselves put in place in a new administration they want installed in an immediate manner..
Honestly, our take on the prevalence of the country’s governance and economic level is that efforts of any new administration all go to naught even at the early days of a new government. Why, because all those who are invited to come together and work as one for the benefit of every Filipino immediately distance themselves from the new administration. Instead they start the “destroy and build” activities. That is, do their worst to destroy a new administration and those who lead it, and do their best to build their names in preparation for the next election where they are eyeing specific elective positions.
How then could we Filipinos succeed in working for a developed Philippines if unity is deliberately made one unattainable dream?
In other words, for as long as we have politicians and supposed leaders blinded with their own ambition for power, an economically developed Philippines will remain a nebulous objective.
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Yesterday was the 39th anniversary of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution. The massive convergence of people in that part of Metro Manila was the first of its kind – a bloodless mass action against the government that succeeded in ousting a leader believed to be illegally amassing wealth for his family by emptying government coffers.
And the Filipinos stood proud for such achievement. Imagine driving away a President with hardly a volley of shot fired and a drop of blood shed!
But what happened to the principles being fought by the EDSA revolutionaries even in only a few years after a new administration took over? The truly principled leaders were virtually inundated by those who came to supposedly helped them put in place the new government.
Even some of the real advocates for change were consumed by their own political ambition and greed for power and money. Those who endeavored to stay on course ended up being relegated in governance structure.
Today, close to four decades hence, EDSA People Power is already fast getting into just a memory becoming even vaguer to the new generation of Filipinos.
