Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero. Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net
If there is one thing that has changed in the first year of President Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency, it would be his brash rhetoric which has “mellowed down a bit,” Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero said on Tuesday.
Escudero, member of the majority bloc in the Senate, initially declined to assess Duterte’s performance, saying he has yet to see all the data before he could come up with a definite grade on how the President led the country for the past year.
“He’s (Duterte) learning certain things, and we’re learning certain things. He’s getting used to certain things and we’re getting used to certain things as well with him,” he said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channels’ morning show “Headstart.”
But when asked about the President’s “brash rhetoric,” Escudero said: “Yan yung sinasabi ko na (that’s what I’m saying, that) we’re trying to get used to him, and he’s trying to get used to the office as well.”
The senator noted that when Duterte was still the mayor of Davao City, he could get away with his rhetorical statements because nobody was paying attention to him except his constituents.
“Now anything that flows from his mouth is actually not only national but international news as well. He has to get used to that and we have to get used to his brash rhetoric too,” he said.
“But in the past few months, it has mellowed down a bit. So I think as we get used to him, he’s getting used to it as well. Buti na lang nga at may (good thing that there was a) Trump na dumating (that arrived),” Escudero said in jest, referring to US President Donald Trump.
Before this, the senator recognized the country’s economy, which has been “relatively healthy” under the Duterte administration, noting that the Gross Domestic Product stood at 6.3 percent to 6.4 percent in the last half of 2016.
“I think the reason is number one: President Duterte is not perceived to be corrupt or is not actually corrupt like the former president, Aquino, and number two; he has not dipped his fingers, to be fair, on matters that he feels like is not part of his core competence,” he said.
Escudero said that while Duterte was focused on his war on drugs and the peace and order problems of the country, the President did not dip his fingers on the economy and instead allowed his economic managers to handle it by themselves, being experts at their fields. JPV/rga
RELATED STORY
Duterte: One year of bold initiatives, shock and awe