THE 1987 Constitution established the Office of the President, in the order of precedence, as the most coveted, compelling and exciting position in the entire Philippine government.
Indeed, the position carries a concomitant responsibility and a covenant with the people, and this is clearly written in his oath of office, thus: “…obey and defend the Constitution, execute the laws and do justice to everyone.”
A President, therefore, must be judged daily on what he does in office, based on the clearly defined oath of office and not on the basis of popularity surveys that merely deceive the public and mask ineptness and incompetence.
So, beyond Section 2, Article VII of the Constitution (“No person may be elected President unless he is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines; a registered voter; able to read and write; at least 40 years of age on the day of the election; and a resident of the Philippines for at least 10 years immediately preceding such election”), the President must show a broad knowledge of statecraft, and the ability to govern and draw up a strategic plan with a very clear mission and vision statement about his administration.
A President must handle well such issues as laws, politics, economics, sociology, foreign affairs, national security and public order, and draw up a well-defined direction where the country is going, and what are the means required to get there and make it peaceful, economically progressive and highly competitive.
Not only that. He must be aware of a mixture of several factors: How to deal with Congress, the Judiciary and the people; how to deal with corrupt officials, politicians and businessmen; and how to apply moral and ethical standards on other people in an environment where convincing, cajoling and hustling are needed—requiring the exercise of flexibility, creativity, understanding and competitive intelligence—to survive the day.
This is not just a simple case of governance and propaganda mileage. He must think the information flowing into the inner circles of the Presidential Palace is astounding in its volume and complexity, and the potential for blunder is always lurking there to trap him and aggravate his problem.
For instance, the President may, on days or weeks, must cope with difficult problems on the economy; energy; the size of the defense budget; types of tactical and strategic plans to stifle insurgency, separatism and criminality; how to deal with anxious businessmen; the media and the public that are always looking at what the Chief Executive or Commander in Chief is doing on various issues.
The President must find time to deal with all these problems, to say nothing of other issues, themselves not so easy to meet and master.
The President must also remain in command of the State (and its four elements: people, government, territory and sovereignty), so that he can move from one issue to another in an orderly manner, ask the right questions in advance and be responsive to public expectation.
It can’t happen, unless he must first organize and manage the government, and bring the nation and the outside world to his attention in a way he can understand it, to permit him to handle problems of the State intelligently; to make concrete decisions; to take action and to see them through to a successful conclusion.
No President, however, can do the job alone. He must be guided with the right combination of policies and be able to call upon a talented pool of men and women in the civilian bureaucracy, supported by the members of the police and military organizations.
In the final analysis, he must bring them together as a team, combining all their talents to produce a cohesive and responsive bureaucracy, certainly not the kind of setup that increases in number of temporary committees, commissions or task forces every time there is a crisis and, thus, inordinately expand the size of the government and the budget, as were done by the previous administrations.
How to handle personalities is certainly important. It is a question of personal pride, power and prestige. A President must have a good memory and a sense of history, including the kind of history the country had already seen for more than five generations.
Looking back, some presidents had merely wasted the country’s time and resources, creating and managing crises, instead of shaping the future and the attendant ills of plunder, corruption, insurgencies, tax evasion, smuggling, carnapping, kidnapping, killing of journalists, and the breakdown of morality, peace and order compounded the problem.
Whether personalities come to overshadow policies or are submerged beneath them and whether the inevitable tensions and squabbles among contending officials—all claiming dedication to the nation’s service, but with different interests and views on how to achieve them that may lead only to paralysis at the top—is partly a matter of strong leadership. But it is also essentially a matter of organization and strategy.
Prospectively, I wish President Rodrigo R. Duterte the best of health and the best of luck for the country and our people!
Let’s hope he will perform his duties and responsibilities the way that is highly expected of him, bearing in mind that we Filipinos, regardless of political affiliation, also have our own social, legal and spiritual responsibilities to show him.
Image credits: AP