Nothing new

Herbie  Gomez

THEIndependent report about the “rediscovered assessment” of President Duterte’s mental health didn’t come as a surprise to me. I guess that news report by the British online paper was more for the non-Filipino media audience that just started to take interest in the “colorful” pronouncements and behavior of our “colorful” leader.

But for many of us, Filipinos, there is really nothing new to this news story on the psychological report commissioned by Dr. Natividad Dayan that was used in voiding Duterte and Elizabeth Zimmerman’s marriage in 1998.

The Dayan report diagnosed Duterte as someone with antisocial narcissistic personality disorder.

The findings:

• gross indifference, insensitivity and self-centeredness;
• grandiose sense of self-entitlement and manipulative behavior;
• unhealthy and destructive behavior;
• poor capacity for objective judgment;
• failure to see things in the light of facts;
• inability for loyalty and commitment; and
• lack of capacity for remorse and guilt.

This disorder, based on Zimmerman’s testimony, made her “miserable and unhappy.”

It may be argued that the psychological report was merely written for purposes of complying with the annulment requirements, and that Ms. Zimmerman didn’t really mean what she stated that the then Davao mayor made her life “miserable and unhappy” because if she meant it, she wouldn’t be helping her ex-husband’s successful presidential campaign early this year.

But we, who are starting to get used to Mr. Duterte’s antics, do not need a shrink or an ex-wife to see the obvious–that is, something is not right.

It may also be said that everyone, one way or the other, has some form of personality dysfunction. But it must be pointed out that not all dysfunctions result in marriage breakups or affect an entire nation. And most personality disorders don’t translate into words, behaviors or actions that eventually become government policy. Simply put, the degree of the personality disorder of the man living peacefully a few blocks from my house doesn’t affect our national life. There lies the big difference.

Come to think of it, for each finding in the Dayan report, one can actually think of  a corresponding pronouncement or an act made during the first three months of this administration. You would be lying to yourself if you say that it didn’t happen.

Of course, we already knew about this psychological report even before election day, and people were warned. We merely looked the other way. And, of course, we are seeing and hearing it week after week. That is something very difficult to deny. Nothing new, really. Pastilan.