Very seldom will you see a President like President Duterte. I mean just listen to one of his speeches and you'll see why. While running, he promised a bunch of things and he has seemed to have flipped on several of his earlier promises.
One of the things he promised was a shift to a federal form of government as opposed to the unitary form we currently have. I still think a federal form would do us good but I'll have to admit that I wouldn't know what that would do in the long run. It might be more prudent to slowly ease the country into a federal form of government. This, I believe is what Duterte is trying to do. He's probably second guessing himself on the issue of federalism as it would effectively make regions more independent from each other.
I do see him breaking a lot of his earlier promises now. As with almost all politicians, they will be breaking some of their promises. This is not something I think is bad in all accounts, however. When detractors of the president lambaste him for his outrageous promises and then lambaste him again for breaking said promises, I can't help but feel confused. Would a failed outrageous promise actually be a good thing and in fact be a plus on the president?
There's a lot to be said about President Duterte and there's a lot of things to criticize. But if he changes his mind on a promise he made nearly 4 years ago, I hardly think that should be taken against him.
Here's a for instance. Our territory in the West Philippine Sea - you know, the one that's always on the news - is one promise he flipped on. He earlier promised to be firm with the Chinese and get back what was taken from us. Truth be told, this was one of the things I didn't like about Duterte when he ran back in 2016. He has now seemingly flipped on this promise and seems to be very friendly with the Chinese and doesn't seem to have any plans to reclaim our territory on a jetski.
The reason I didn't like his promise back in 2016 is that I simply didn't think it was a wise move to do. We lost Scarborough Shoal in 2012, during the term of Noynoy because plain and simple - WE LEFT IT. It's complicated since once you leave a territory and allow another country to occupy it, there's really no turning back. We can show them the Hague ruling all we want but China is the type of country that doesn't necessarily play nice when it comes to agreements. Co-incidentally, it was another agreement between the Aquino admin and China that saw us losing the Scarborough Shoal.
Why don't we take it back? Simply put, we cannot. Sad as it may seem, the bullies in this case win this time. We neither have the money nor the resources to reclaim the Shoal. A military stand-off will only end badly for the Philippines. I'm actually glad he's taking the high road on this one. What I don't appreciate his the detour he's making on the way.
I see Duterte is trying to maneuver his way into China's good side in order to resolve this peacefully. I think he is very much mistaken in that aspect. China may be good for trade but not so good as a permanent ally. We have better friends in Japan and the US.
As for federalism, many opponents of the change have made their points clear to me. Though 2016 Duterte clearly thought that federalism would be the way to go, 2019 Duterte may not be as optimistic and I get it. A shift may or may not be beneficial and he wouldn't want to be the guy who pushed a half-baked cookie into our mouths. Though I think it's a far ways off, the current form does seem promising. Every problematic provision in previous versions have always been addressed in the next iterations. I think this Cha-cha will be a good one. I just hope we see it finish before 2022.
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