AS recounted in the
first part published Tuesday, President Rodrigo Duterte has been quick to
address the runaway crime and massive underspending under his predecessor
Benigno Aquino 3rd. That has given Duterte public approval ratings nearing or
exceeding 80 percent in all major polls. ( for the first part of Mr.Ricardo
Saludo’s article please refer to the blog post titled “Who is doing more
between Noynoy and Rody?” that was published last September 26, 2017)
After tripling under
Aquino, overall crime incidence fell by about one-third within months of
Duterte’s takeover. And from 13 percent of national budgets unspent in
2014-2015, leaving some ₱1 trillion unused when Aquino stepped down, nearly all
allocations were utilized this year.
Now, let’s look at
corruption and national security. On sleaze, Duterte avoided one Aquino trait
that abetted graft: cronyism. *
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| President Rodrigo Roa Duterte talks to his predecessor Benigno Simeon Aquino III during an event in Davao prior to the 2016 Presidential Elections (photo credit to Malacañang photo bureau) |
Aquino jailed perceived
opponents, including his predecessor Gloria Arroyo over charges the United
Nations called politically motivated. But Aquino defended appointees, starting
with shooting buddy Rico Puno, accused of getting jueteng payoffs and
mishandling the August 2010 Luneta hostage crisis.
This despite dubious
contracts in train maintenance and upgrading, vehicle plates and driver’s
licenses; drug trafficking and illegal furloughs in the national penitentiary;
and police firearms overpricing, which Aquino himself uncovered but never
punished. He even paid the bail for Liberal Party mates indicted for graft.
And when more than 2,000
uninspected and untaxed cargo containers went missing in 2011—the biggest spate
of smuggling in the country ever—Aquino ordered no investigation, and the
Palace even suspended a Customs deputy commissioner who blew the whistle after
600 boxes had vanished.
Result: contraband
tripled to an unprecedented $26.6 billion in 2014, from $7.9 billion in 2009,
based on International Monetary Fund data. The estimated undeclared or misdeclared
value of imports topped ₱4 trillion under Aquino, with evaded value-added tax
alone exceeding ₱700 billion.
Contrast all that with
Duterte’s firing of two longtime supporters over reported irregularities,
including a stalwart of his PDP-Laban party then handling police and local
governments. And he has promised to resign if his children are proven corrupt.
No wonder two-thirds of Filipinos approve of his anti-graft campaign, as
surveyed by US pollster Pew Research Center.
*
For sure, like drugs,
corruption will take forever to eradicate, as Duterte himself admits. But swift
action on drug smuggling through customs and trafficking at New Bilibid Prison,
in stark contrast to Aquino’s inaction, are reversing past ills.
The war on terror
On terrorism, some experts
blame President Duterte and his security chiefs for not moving fast and strong
enough against extremists. No matter that he instantly declared martial law
over all Mindanao when told of the Marawi assault while visiting Moscow, even
without such recommendation from the Department of National Defense or the
Armed Forces of the Philippines.
What belies critics
claiming Duterte, DND and AFP complacency are the months of offensives waged
against Islamic State-linked extremists, including the Bangsamoro Islamic
Freedom Fighters (BIFF), which broke away from the main Muslim insurgency, the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front, when the MILF shelved secession and began talks
for autonomy in the 1990s.
Aquino too faced Muslim
rebel attack: the siege of Zamboanga City by the Moro National Liberation
Front, from which the MILF broke away after the MNLF accepted autonomy in a
1996 peace accord. The older Front felt excluded and disadvantaged by Aquino’s
MILF negotiations.
Which leader fought
terrorism more effectively? One can’t compare two different situations, but in
one crucial respect, Duterte may have done better. The MILF is now mounting
offensives against the BIFF with AFP support.
*
That’s the exact
opposite of what happened in the January 2015 police commando raid to kill
Malaysian bomb terrorist Marwan in a BIFF lair in Mamasapano, Maguindanao
province, central Mindanao. MILF and BIFF rebels wiped out 44 troopers of the
elite Philippine National Police Special Action Force.
In the massacre—the
worst in PNP history—the AFP did not fire artillery or send reinforcements to
save the SAF 44, apparently for fear of scuttling the MILF accord, the concern
cited by a senior general in command of units that could have responded. The
Manila Times also reported that Aquino, worried over the peace pact, ordered
the military to stand down.
Plainly, having the MILF
battling terrorists with the AFP is far better than the insurgents joining
extremists in decimating our troops. And if Filipinos were asked if they
approved of Aquino’s counter-terrorism strategy, he would score far below
Duterte’s 64 percent Pew rating.
Dealing with the world
The final comparison has
to be foreign affairs: Aquino’s pro-American, anti-Chinese stance vs Duterte’s
“independent” policy ratcheting down ties with the US, while leveling up with
China and Russia.
With Aquino’s
adversarial approach, there were Chinese encroachments on Philippine-claimed
waters and islets. His Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement would escalate US
military presence and give America access to Philippine bases. In response,
Beijing built up military-capable facilities in the South China Sea. *
President Duterte’s
approach, on the other hand, has seen Filipino fishermen return to Panatag
Shoal. The Chinese have largely ceased reclamation in the Spratlys. And Beijing
has been quick to defuse tensions.
Indeed, Western experts
concede that China, in practice, is complying with last year’s ruling on the
Philippine case in The Hague’s Permanent Court of Arbitration against Chinese
maritime encroachments, even as Beijing formally rejects the PCA decision.
As for the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations, Asian and China have agreed on the framework for
the Code of Conduct on activities and issues in the South China Sea.
Lastly, the Philippines
is set to receive much more foreign aid and investment, as China, Japan and the
US vie for Duterte’s favor. As the economy surges, we can in time acquire the
maritime surveillance aircraft, anti-ship missiles, and anti-aircraft systems
urged by US defense experts to defend our territorial interests.
In the Pew survey, most
Filipinos approve of President Duterte’s handling of relations with both China
and America. And if surveyed whether we would like Aquino’s camp to replace
Duterte’s at the nation’s helm, it would be no contest.
The article was written by Mr. Ricardo
Saludo of the Manila Times titled “Where Duterte is doing better than Aquino”
which was published September 29, 2017.
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