Rodrigo Duterte

[OPINION] Recording the Duterte legacy

Edilberto De Jesus

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[OPINION] Recording the Duterte legacy
'It will likely take many years to plumb the depths of the damage done to the country’s political and civic institutions during the six-year rule of Rodrigo Roa Duterte'

Marcos Jr. maintained during the election campaign a studious silence on his presidential plans.  Candidate Rodrigo Duterte, in contrast, confidently proclaimed in his campaign a 15-Point Legacy Agenda he pledged to deliver within his term. The Marcos Jr. SONA effectively marks the first, formal exposition of his intended legacy. 

The inaugural SONA would prefer to avoid dwelling on the past, but the record of the previous administration frames the context for the ambitions of the new government.  It is a positive sign that Marcos Jr. and his newly-appointed officials appear to appreciate this point.   In campaigning for public office, candidates commit to make things better, say in providing easier access to public transportation facilities, punishing corruption, and posting improved levels of growth on the employment, income, and social development fronts.  

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All exiting administrations face the temptation to burnish and memorialize their achievements, while excusing, if not concealing, their failures.  Marcos Jr. clearly benefited from the alliance with the Dutertes.  Surveys continued to report Duterte’s high positive approval ratings, even as he stepped down from the presidency.  Any perceived criticism is likely to anger his followers and those of VP Sara — although the daughter has made it clear that she is not her father’s keeper.  The Marcos Jr. government would prefer to maintain the alliance.  But he and his officials would not want to bear the baggage left by the previous administration as a burden for which they must take responsibility.

New officials cannot be indifferent to the task of setting the record straight; the public will judge their performance at the end of their terms on the extent to which they succeeded or failed to move the needle forward.  All of the new Cabinet officials are presumably already taking as the first order of business, reviewing their assigned portfolios and establishing their respective starting points against which they will eventually be measured. Did they push beyond the starting line, get stuck, or slide back?

For good or ill, Duterte’s own “legacy” commitments have already staked out clearly the issues inherited by with which the Marcos Jr. government must contend.  Start with the litter of dead bodies left as road kill in Duterte’s war on drugs and the painfully slow progress on the DOJ investigation of police personnel suspected of inflicting unlawful, deadly violence on alleged drug dealers: 52 cases turned over by PNP for review against the 6,000 record of casualties admitted by the government and the 30,000 incidents that human rights activists have claimed as extrajudicial killings.  Duterte’s repeated denunciation of connivance between high-ranking police officials and drug dealers and his own estimate of 30-40% level of corruption among police personnel give plausibility to the claims.  

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Not even Ferdinand Marcos Sr., who reached the top ranks of global  corrupt leaders, merited the attention of the International Criminal Court for Crimes against Humanity.  But, as Duterte rightly insists, the country must render its own judgment on the issue.  The credibility and morale of the PNP, which remains a vital agency of government, has arguably suffered the heaviest collateral damage from  weaponization of legal and administrative processes.  Consider the recent American congressional action making its assistance to the PNP conditional on respect for “fundamental human rights.”   

Beyond the drug war, cases requiring a more sober and comprehensive review include those against Rappler, ABS-CBN, and Leila de Lima, the latter of which is still in detention after five years, although  key witnesses have recanted their allegations. Like the issue of EJK and PNP human rights abuses, these cases have also tarnished the country’s image abroad at a time of increasing need for international support.  

Even Duterte officials adopted into the Marcos Jr. team will have problems down the road, if they choose to inflate what they profess to have accomplished during their terms.  We already see the Marcos Jr. administration introducing changes.  Newly appointed Finance Secretary  Ben Diokno wants to  give Marcos Jr. one year to “right-size” the bureaucracy, whose costs constituted a major item of his concerns as Duterte’s BSP Governor. The government employs some two million personnel in 187 government agencies and government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCC).  DBM Sec. Amenah Pangandaman estimated that it would save P15 billion if it could eliminate just 5% of redundant positions, implicitly acknowledging the high costs of appointing “contractuals” or “casual” employees.   

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While proposing to continue the Duterte Build, Build Build Program, the Cabinet Development Budget Coordination Committee restored the Public Private Partnership template that Duterte had attacked and abandoned.  The Marcos Jr. administration has canceled or suspended negotiations on Chinese loans for P275 billion to build three railway projects.  Stalled because China failed to specify the financing costs it would charge, the increase in US dollar benchmark interest rates, the delay already ensures higher project financing costs for the projects.  In 2021, NEDA reported that Chinese ODA amounted to $621 million against some $9 billion in ODA grants and loans China had pledged to invest in Philippine infrastructure development.  

While the headline issues are obvious, the research task on the Duterte Legacy will still require much time and hard work. Ironically, the easy availability and sheer volume in social media of competing narratives, have made more difficult the filtering and vetting of the documentary evidence to sift the treasure from the trash.  This makes it even more important to begin the project at the start of a new administration. The Marcos Jr. administration can benefit from non-partisan research that academics from different disciplinary domains and institutions have been pursuing.  Still, it will likely take many years to plumb the depth of the damage done to the country’s political and civic institutions during the six-year rule of Rodrigo Roa Duterte.  

Retrieving the record of the Duterte administration serves more than academic historical interest, a point apparently clear to the officials of the Marcos Jr. administration.  The project is as much about the future as the past. – Rappler.com

Edilberto de Jesus is a Senior Research Fellow of the Ateneo de Manila University School of Government. 

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