Selective will

Bencyrus Ellorin .

FILIPINOS have longed for swift and decisive action from government.

This is understandable because people are tired, expecting so much and getting a lot less from government.

Like the 16 million Filipinos, I want this administration to succeed. The 2016 polls were fair and square. Nobody except the Marcoses selectively and with much display of double standard say the results have been rigged.

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s July 24, 2019 State of the Nation Address (Sona) was the most somber. He premised his Sona with the fresh affirmation of his six-year term through the mid-term polls in May.

After winning the super majority in both chambers of Congress, President Duterte, it would seem, wields more political power. And he will exercise these powers without hesitation.

A few days after his Sona, he made a sweeping order to stop all state-sanctioned gambling run by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).

He may have his reasons but that order to stop the lotto, sweepstakes, etc., looked everything like burning the house to get rid of a mouse. I am not a fan of these games of chance but that action speaks of a President willing and eager to exercise his powers.

This image won him the presidency. Aside from masterfully crafting his statements to what people wanted to hear, the President presented himself as one with political will.

While he does have that political will, the problem is consistency, his arbitrariness and double standard.

Still enjoying solid trust ratings, the president does not mind attracting attention to himself even for the wrong reason.

While the PCSO lockdown is a big deal for many, I think it as some intramural and of lesser importance.

But, lo and behold, the public is now focused on it, forgetting his veto of the security of tenure law. Putting in the sidelines the sell-out of Philippine sovereignty to China in the West Philippine Sea, among other gut issues.

The cheering for blood and more blood however will continue, forgetting the country being on the brink of isolation as the administration continues to skirt compliance with a UN resolution on the bloody drugs war.

I do not know how we have come to this; we are like frogs, smiling as the kettle boils.

(The author is a former journalist with experience in managing and editing online news portals here and abroad. He is now a public relations consultant and political campaigner. One of the social media groups he co-administered was a finalist in Globe’s Tatt award in 2012.)