It is now or never, Mr. President

LAST Monday, May 19, in an exclusive interview by veteran newsman Anthony ‘Tunying’ Taberna, President Marcos issued a call for a ‘reconciliation’ with the camp of Vice President Sara Duterte, emphasizing that all he wants right now is to have more “friends” than “enemies.”

The desire for unity, a “balm” in the soul of our fractured nation, is indeed timely and necessary. But many are suspicious as the call was given in the context of the disastrous defeat—there is no other way to see it—of the administration senatorial ticket in the just concluded May 12 midterm polls.

Let us call a spade a spade. The first half of PBBM’s term was a wasted opportunity that happened when he allowed his opportunistic allies and relatives in Congress to effectively take control of the government in the deluded belief that it is their “ticket” to power when PBBM ends his term in 2028 while loading their pockets with the people’s money thru “cuts,” “allocations,” and “commissions” along the way.

This is the problem when the political elite, indifferent to the sentiment and priorities of ordinary people, are allowed to run all matters their own way—to the detriment of the President’s own credibility and standing.

Too, people are suspicious because other than verbally offering the olive branch of peace and reconciliation, PBBM is yet to back his words with action—PDU30 remains in The Hague for trial by an International Kangaroo Court (ICC) and the impeachment of VP Sara would still proceed.

Previously, we wrote that the midterm election is simply all about the chances of success of VP Duterte’s impeachment. And now that the result is finally in, we can now narrow down the chances between “very slim” and “zero.”

On the positive side, we want to believe that ever sensitive to the public’s “pulse,” PBBM is now sincere in attending to what are needed to be done from hereon, in the remaining half of his presidency— working for national unity, stability and progress by prioritizing economic growth and less infusion of politics and corruption in every government program.

The other important area that needs urgent fixing is on our foreign policy where Filipinos are again suffering from the suffocating policy diktats of US Imperialism at the expense of our already minuscule standing in the global community as an American puppet state.

In case PBBM does not know it yet, our economic progress has suffered gravely from our blind compliance to the unwritten US ‘blockade’ of our further economic partnership with China. We have been left behind by Vietnam, can only dream of overtaking Indonesia and just know, has been overtaken by Cambodia as the “fastest” growing economy in SE Asia.

At the end of the day, it would all amount to “legacy,” of how PBBM wants to be remembered by Filipinos and by history.

And over the way the midterm polls turned out, the verdict may not be kind to him, as much as he wants it to be otherwise.

But there is still time, we dare say. And more action in pursuit of the “wishes” he revealed during his interview can still turn things around in his favor.

PBBM’s latest order for all his Cabinet officials to tender their courtesy resignation can be a step in demonstrating true leadership.

It is now or never, Mr. President.