Letters from Davao: 'It’s time for a strongman to act' By Jun Ledesma
IT'S DISTURBING time. The price of oil in the world market is hitting the rafters and the profiteers and destabilizers are taking advantage of the situation in every turn. Bishops and priests along with the rubble rousers in religious habits connive with the political opposition to fan the dying ember of dissent. The oligarchy, immune from any form of economic and geopolitical anomalies, is making life more miserable for the masses. As if these are not enough, foreign-funded media establishments and those run by local media moguls sworn to diminish the popularity of the Duterte government rev their propaganda machineries adding to confusion and the misery of the disillusioned.
The bureaucracy moreover is not without taint. Despite Pres. Rodrigo Duterte’s stern warning against corruption there are still characters in high and low places that overnight amass ill-gotten wealth. The Chief Executive, lonely at the top, is dismayed many of those he has to axed were among those who doggedly pushed him to run for President. What makes me puke on the other hand is the gall of some who are not only contented with one position but made the bureaucracy their family employer. How thick can their hides be.
While the nation is reeling on the impact of the spike of oil prices, we are aghast by what is happening in the other departments.
In the Senate loyalties are defined by the color of money and what insures re-election. Koko Pimentel was booted out as Senate President for while he dons the PDP jacket his body is of Yellow streak. He cannot wait for the opposition to speak against Quo Warranto that led to the termination of the term of Ma. Lourdes Sereno. It turned out he is one among them. Koko, a bar top-notcher alright, lectured on majority of the Magistrates of the Supreme Court in the same language that members of the opposition and the avowed critics of Duterte do. What they demand is for Sereno to be impeached for, by their experience, there is moolah, a lot of moolah, in the proceedings like what they relished when they unkindly ousted the late Chief Justice Renato Corona.
In the Lower Chamber, Speaker Bebot Alvarez is hounded by issues that pertains to his assets. He dares anyone to prove his properties in Siargao and elsewhere were ill-gotten. He blamed his former friend and erstwhile consummate political campaigner, Rep. Tonyboy Floirendo, as the source of the expose’ but the latter shrugged it off. Bebot filed a case against Tonyboy which had been elevated to the Sandiganbayan. The lawyer of Floirendo wanted the case heard to compel the Speaker to appear in the witness stand. We will await this scenario. If Tonyboy is one who cannot swat a fly, we heard his lawyer can be very mean. Meantime, we are seeing hardcore anti-Duterte congressmen and local elective officials recruited to PDP-Laban. It is now difficult to distinguish who are Yellows from PDP-Laban. This condition is what propels regional parties to emerge and part ways from those enmeshed in the morass of power and money-driven politics.
In a situation where politicians perceived to be allies of Duterte remain to be impervious to the problems of the country but preoccupied themselves with selfish and personal agenda, the President should now consider other options which maybe drastic but apt. Declare a revolutionary government or, as an emergency measure to address the rising tide of crises and commercialized dissent, place the entire country under Martial Law. After all he is pictured by his critics as a strongman with a slant on being a dictator.
Either way he can immediately bring down the cost of rice and place those unscrupulous rice traders and cooperatives who sold their NFA allocations to the former instead of retailing them to their outlets. For sure there are officials involved in this racket. These saboteurs should be executed by musketry.
Abolish congress. This should stop big time corruption and the savings on their salaries and avarice can be put into good use.
The President can immediately suspend excise tax on oil if necessary, nationalize the industry if he has to and remove this away from the oligarchy which dictates the cost of fuel and at what rate of rentals of government assets they wish to pay.
Award contracts for mega-projects under BUILD BUILD BUILD after determining the lowest bidders which under the present system are subject to TROs and other deterrent actions which, on the bases of our experience, are the reasons why projects takes eons to complete.
Restore death penalty. The penalty should include economic saboteurs.
Declare CPP/NPA/NDF terrorist organizations if within one month upon declaration of ReGov or Martial Law they refuse to sign a Peace Agreement. Consequently, if agreement is signed, declare general amnesty for the NPAs and award them lands individually or communal settlements within six months. They must however turning over their firearms immediately.
Allow all media establishments to continue operating without restraint except those who are funded by foreign organizations or individuals.
Call for a constitutional convention three months after declaration of RevGov or ML; one that would draft a constitution for a Federal Form of Government which shall replace the present constitution. The same shall be enforced following a four-year duration of the RevGov or ML.
Wishful thinking? Do not challenge the strongman and the fates. (Jun Ledesma)
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