Guts wanted from a caring President

“GUTS.” That was the one-word response of an Alyansa Agrikultura leader when asked by incoming Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II the question, “What do you want most from the President, if possible, in one word?”

This was posed right before incoming President Rodrigo Duterte’s arrival for the closing session of “Sulong Pilipinas” on June 21, which was convened in Davao City to solicit recommendations from more than 400 leaders throughout the country for the Duterte administration’s 10-point program.

On the first day, the 10-point program was explained in detail by Duterte’s economic team. In the afternoon workshops, participants were divided into groups of 10. Each group’s recommendations were posted on separate boards, each representing a program point. The recommendations were then summarized for presentation to Duterte the next day.

First question

Prior to the presentation, the economic team asked questions to the private sector participants.  Regarding the question on what they wanted from the President, only one participant gave a one-word answer.

In explaining why guts was wanted, the AA representative said: “In the past, many promised government actions never materialized. The concerned government officials did not have the guts to fight strong opposing forces. The result was that evil triumphed because the good men in the government did nothing.”

During the presidential campaign, many voters believed that the candidate with the most guts was Duterte. They felt he truly cared for them (especially the poor), instead of caring for themselves. This was either because they feared the opposing forces, or because they would get bribes by siding with them.

Indeed, the poor has for so long suffered from injustice, that is why our rural poverty is 40 percent or more than the levels in our neighboring countries: Vietnam (19 percen), Indonesia and Thailand (14 percent), and Malaysia (2 percent).

On June 20, somebody told me that Duterte would do a James LeBron—who overcame tremendous odds after a long history of defeat to bring the Cleveland Cavaliers to victory over the Golden State Warriors—for poor Filipinos.  For Duterte, that would be ending a long period of injustice and achieving victory over poverty.

Second question

Aguirre posed a second question to the private sector: “Are you willing to prosecute erring government officials?” The AA representative said yes, but qualified his answer.

The AA representative said that many times they had wanted to prosecute smugglers with the massive evidence collected. But this was not possible because the law allowed only the BOC to do the prosecution. Ironically, the BOC would discard the damning evidence and intentionally weaken the cases so that the smugglers would go scot-free. This is because those BOC officials did not have the guts to fight big-time smugglers, not to mention the bribes they would get by conniving with them.

This was not the case before. In 2005, two members of the private sector (one from agriculture-Alyansa Agrikultura, the other from industy-Federation of Philippine Industries) participated actively in the Cabinet Oversight Committee Against Smuggling (Cocas). The four most relevant government departments (finance, trade and industry, agriculture and justice) were represented by their respective secretaries or undersecretaries. In the by-weekly Cocas meetings, the BOC had no choice but to respond positively to such a high level group with private sector participation. That year, the smuggling rate went down from 8 percent to 6 percent.

But when Cocas was abolished because big fish were caught, the smuggling rate steadily increased to 36 percent in 2014. This is because the BOC no longer had effective monitoring and support from other parts of the government. Since then, many smuggling complaints filed in the BOC became like the dreams in the Mona Lisa song: “They just lie there and they die there.” A government unit must have the support of other government units and the private sector to help its officials have the guts to fight powerful entities. To defeat smuggling, Cocas must be restored.

The new government promises: “Change is coming.” Those who voted for Duterte believed he had the most guts to achieve a change that was hard to win against powerful forces. But the guts must come from not only the President, but also from the lower-level government officials. The private sector must also do its share by helping these officials have the guts to move in the right direction.

In the final analysis, guts are needed not only from a caring President and conscientious government officials, but also from the caring previously timid private sector leaders. It is hoped they will not succumb to their fear of powerful opposing forces. Only with this unity of equally gutsy Filipinos from all sectors can we say that change is coming.

(The author is chair of Agriwatch, former secretary for Presidential Flagship Programs and Projects, and former undersecretary for Agriculture, Trade and Industry. For inquiries and suggestions, email [email protected] or telefax (02) 8522112).