Hope turns into worry in 100 days of Duterte

President Rodrigo Duterte
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

The bright afterglow of the May elections appears to be dimming for President Duterte as he marks his 100 days in office, with many investors spooked by his unforgiving war on crime and drugs, opposition leaders interviewed by the Inquirer said.

The government’s focus on the antidrug war has killed thousands, and the President’s propensity for outrageous statements have served to overshadow his administration’s early gains, Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat said.

There have been positive examples, including the government’s encouraging disposition toward peace talks with the communist and Moro insurgencies, as well as his bold environmental, antimining and agrarian reform policies.

But the leader of the independent minority bloc in the House of Representatives said the gains have been quickly buried under a heap of concerns.

“The anxieties and worries over the President’s pronouncements sometimes overshadow the accomplishments. That’s what is being given focus on by the public and the media,” Baguilat said in an interview.

In a span of 100 days, Mr. Duterte has grabbed international headlines for threatening to pull the country out of the United Nations, cursing at US President Barack Obama and the European Union, and drawing a parallel between his drug war and Adolf Hitler’s extermination of Jews.

Generous assessment

Baguilat said he would “objectively” rate Mr. Duterte a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10 were it not for the incendiary statements.

Still, that is a fairly generous assessment, the lawmaker from the erstwhile ruling Liberal Party (LP) said.

“The point is the uncertainty,” Baguilat said. “We haven’t seen the economy fall. We’re not saying there will be no more foreign direct investments. But it’s worrying.”

For Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, the President’s achievements could be measured in two ways: whether he has fulfilled his major campaign promises, and the extent he has advanced the administration’s 10-point economic agenda.

Lagman said Mr. Duterte “has nothing much to crow about with respect to fulfilling his principal campaign promises.”

“The light at the end of the tunnel remains far too distant,” he said of the promise to eradicate drugs within six months. “What is revolting are dead bodies of suspects littering the tunnel.”

Lagman, also a member of LP, said the government was sacrificing the economy and relegating the people’s welfare to the back-burner in favor of the “all-consuming passion to exterminate suspected drug dealers and addicts.”