BERSALES
The recent interview by Stephen Sackur or the researchers of his hard-hitting (and, thus, so aptly named) talk show “HardTalk” aired on BBC World late last week appears to have digressed 180 degrees from the usual lambastes by foreign journalists against Pres. Rodrigo Duterte, who will mark his first year in office this Saturday.
In that now-so-famous interview with Sen. Antonio Trillanes, Sackur minced no words in stating things that came as quite a surprise to many who have been used to foreign journalists bashing the President.
Like it or not, Sackur’s pointed questions and observations, coming from a non-Filipino and a no-holds-barred journalist, may provide some basis with which to assess Duterte Year 1, beyond the emotions we Filipinos have, whether for or against the President.
First, that despite all the attacks, personal or otherwise against Duterte, his popularity rating has remained high, something that politicians in Europe would be jumping for joy if they ever got that high a grade.
Second, that despite allegations he has caused the death of around 7,000 Filipinos in the incessant drug war, majority of Filipinos, to quote Sackur, “seem to like his iron fist…where obedience to the law is not optional.”
Third, that even during the elections, Duterte admitted as much about death squads. Again quoting Sackur, “In May 2015, he (Duterte) said, am I the death squad? It’s true; that is true. So again he put his own record in front of the Filipino public even to the point of discussing his association with death squads and the Filipino public decided that this was the man to clean up your country.”
Fourth, that the majority of the Filipino public elected Duterte to the presidency “because they wanted a tough guy…who could impose order.” To quote Sackur again, “Your country was in a powerless state, drugs crime was at the center of it, and that’s why Duterte was voted in to deal with it.”
He adds further, “For all your fears of what Duterte means for the Philippines, right now viewed by many ordinary Filipinos, this guy is doing a decent job.”
The penultimate statement from Sackur was actually delivered during the first few minutes of the interview when he said that based on comments made by members of the public in Manila, “the streets are safer now,” and that “here in the Philippines we needed a ruler with an iron fist. … The country is growing at 7% per year… in a way Duterte appears to be working for the Philippines.”
And finally, the most significant of them all, was said right at Sackur’s opening statement: “Is Duterte taking the Philippines and the region in a new direction?”
I expected passionate anti-Duterte netizens and observers to react to the interview with the same passion that has been shown by them in so many other instances, but searching through the actual YouTube interview, the overwhelming reaction was all praise for the hard-hitting Sackur and nothing but boo-hoos for Trillanes’ responses that only painted him as someone whose hatred for Duterte is boundless to the point of making allegations that others found laughable.
I leave it to you, dear readers, to judge the year we had with President Duterte. But these statements, coming from a foreign journalist who has clashed in the past with sitting prime ministers and presidents in his talk show, is something of an eye-opener. Come to think of it, we never had a president who exposed the depth of narcopolitics in this country; who had the courage to call a spade a spade and, hold your breath, impose martial law in Mindanao despite a national, passionate hatred of it owing to the Marcos dictatorship — and succeed with nary a whimper, in fact a lot praise, from the people of Mindanao in doing so.
The final word on this year under Tatay Digong, as some people now call him, actually came from — of all places — the World Bank, which recently announced that the country was growing at 7 percent and will continue to grow despite or perhaps because of Duterte.
And so, as we mark Year 1 under Duterte, like him or not, let us all admit — as I’m sure even Senator Trillanes would — this was without doubt a most exciting year, one we had never seen nor heard of before. The next five years? Bring it on!