By: Manuel L. Quezon III
A humorous factor occurred on the best way to the First 100 Days anniversary of Ferdinand Marcos Jr on October 8. Everybody was primed to watch it, for the reason that a hundredth day is a ritual noticed by each president since Corazon Aquino beneath the current Fifth Republic. However Ferdinand Marcos Jr determined to not rejoice it.
It wasn’t for lack of preparation: The official propaganda arm of the federal government had its collaterals prepared. The issue was his administration was solely starting to kind itself out after some essential personnel adjustments: the final weeks of September and the primary days of October have been marked first, by the autumn, after two months of sustained assaults from the administration’s personal allies, of Victor Rodriguez, the President’s government secretary.
This was adopted, in flip, by the dismissal (although ostensibly resignations on well being grounds) of the press secretary and the chief auditor of the federal government: the previous clearly lacked entry to the president and so needed to wing it when it got here to criticism of the president’s actions, and the latter had incongruously been appointed to move the very fee that had declared him in breach of the regulation and ethics when he was solicitor-general within the Duterte authorities.
If this inner turmoil wasn’t debilitating sufficient, one in all his chief coalition companions, former president and present Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, launched an announcement framing the primary 100 days earlier than the President himself may accomplish that. The milestone, she stated on October 5, served two functions. First, to “give the nation and the world a message to encourage confidence relative to the realm of best concern,” after which to “give the Filipino individuals an concept of the management model” of the incumbent. Regarding the first, she declared that the “antagonistic financial influence” of the pandemic plus tensions in Ukraine and Taiwan “is topmost on most minds.” Right here, Marcos Junior “reassured everybody by assembling a powerful financial staff that has been universally praised.” As for the second, “the president has projected himself properly as a peaceful, considerate chief who’s true to his promise to advertise unity.”
In the long run, Marcos after zigging, zagged. He ended up marking his hundredth day in workplace in any case with a video posted on Fb on October eighth. In it, he straight contradicted Macapagal-Arroyo’s framing of his administration. He’s, in any case, a hands-on government.
“They are saying that the primary 100 days is a honeymoon interval once you’re nonetheless feeling your means. However that’s not how I really feel — possibly as a result of I’m already accustomed to the work. That’s why I used to be capable of begin instantly,” he stated. The listing of accomplishments he selected to focus on, beginning with lifting the out of doors masks requirement in consequence, he claimed, of the scope in vaccination towards Covid-19, in addition to disbursing particular allowances to medical frontliners, additionally highlights his nonetheless missing a Secretary of Well being. Ordering the resumption of face-to-face lessons, too, he steered, represented a “important financial exercise and stimulus,” a part of the restoration of the economic system, which he additionally stated was going to be boosted by the investments drummed up throughout his travels.
As for his personal portfolio of agriculture, he selected to gloss over excessive costs and tout a rise in funding for espresso manufacturing. He did do one thing daring and new: ordering a one-year moratorium on amortization and curiosity funds of agrarian reform beneficiaries. And he did change his strategy to Muslim revolt in Mindanao, declaring the extension of the phrases of the Bangsamoro Transition Council and the continuation of the decommissioning course of for former Moro rebels.
Nonetheless, it’s dangerous sufficient to rattling with faint reward, the sum whole in accordance with this being that the president mercifully is aware of properly sufficient to rent consultants to do the work whereas not pursuing vendettas. Truthful sufficient. Critics and mere observers primed for a sort of Ancien Regime counterrevolution discovered the brand new president unwilling to butt heads with them. In his two nationwide addresses he acknowledged he had no real interest in debating historical past or altering the way it’s taught; the nationwide vacation marking the dying anniversary of his father’s nemesis, Benigno S. Aquino Jr., proceeded as earlier than and his authorities introduced that subsequent yr’s EDSA Revolution anniversary would proceed as enshrined in regulation.
However what Macapagal-Arroyo word-painted wasn’t an image of an engaged, energetic, chief government. Worse, nobody likes a know-it-all. It could be an excessive amount of to say this preemptive framing rattled Marcos Junior, however his try, that night, to begin framing the a hundredth day milestone nonetheless three days away revealed one in all his stunning shortcomings. Marcos Junior was all the time a reliable understudy of the orotund speechifying of Marcos Senior, and so can sound convincing when delivering normally well-written speeches. However when he tries to wing it, he stumbles over himself in a fashion that resembles George W. Bush’s self-tangling relationship with off-the-cuff remarks. His remarks to the Manila Abroad Press Membership, as mushy and forgiving an viewers as could be discovered, have been true to kind. What he’d achieved, he stated, was a “practical” authorities with “a really, excellent concept of what we’re concentrating on by way of strict financial targets,” and staffed with “the very best and the brightest,” whereas his abroad journeys to New York, Singapore, and Indonesia produced investments and confirmed the nation “is standing on its toes.”
It may very well be that involved advisers afterwards suggested him that if he saved at it, all he’d accomplish can be to hug the tar child that was Arroyo’s assertion even tighter, giving ammunition to the speaking factors of his critics: that the president is feckless, shallow, unindustrious and unengaged. And that moreover, his mantra of unity is belied by the habits of his personal coalition, which appears composed of factions that appear more and more unable to face one another (the autumn within the fortunes of his former government and press secretaries had been heralded by hypothesis inside the Marcos-Duterte on-line echo chambers).
Higher to disengage. This greatest explains why the president –or to be exact, his new government secretary (and therein lies one other story, of which extra, later)—the subsequent day declared that he wasn’t concerned about observing the hundredth-day milestone in any case earlier than reversing course. His closest allies together with his first cousin, the Speaker of the Home, have been left holding the bag, sounding much more toadying than regular.
Nonetheless, it may very well be written off as Marcosian jiujitsu, the dodging of an anticipated drawback or occasion by deftly stepping apart and doing one thing else, leaving one’s opponents holding the bag, partaking skinny air as an alternative of the chief government. Marcos Senior was well-known for this, which is why the time period dates again to him. Marcos Junior himself had sidestepped the fiftieth anniversary of his father instituting his dictatorship on September 23, by leaving his critics behind at residence, to interact along with his Chief Presidential Authorized Counsel, the 98-year-old Juan Ponce Enrile, whereas he himself stunned observers and hogged the limelight by fairly publicly signaling a rapprochement with Washington.
To make certain, this was a duet: regardless of President Biden as soon as having been a part of the observer group that declared Ferdinand Senior’s 1986 snap election fraudulent, Washington ensured that the status-conscious Marcoses can be gratified by a delegation imbued with larger standing to attend his inaugural in comparison with that of his speedy predecessors. And so the husband of the vice-president was dispatched, which, along with different high-status friends such because the governor-general of Australia (the one different nation moreover the USA which has a Visiting Forces Settlement with the Philippines), confirmed the West was ready to courtroom Marcos as assiduously because the Chinese language, who’d despatched their very own Vice-President.
It’s right here, in his international coverage exercise, that one can glean the Junior Marcos’s strategy to his job and probably, his personal metrics for achievement. He was raised in an period when his father (and mom, who took to carting him round on official visits) aspired to greater than mere bit elements on the world stage; the revival of this ambition was evident in each the Inaugural and State of the Nation addresses of Marcos, delivered roughly a month aside. Each proposed a extra distinguished function in worldwide affairs for the Philippines. His new pivot again to America, nonetheless, belies Marcos’s rhetoric in the direction of China. A “extra balanced” strategy to the 2 international locations might reassure Washington however go away Beijing chilly. It additionally represents a possible bone of rivalry inside his personal coalition: in distinction to the headlines surrounding his journey to America, his vice-president, Sara Duterte (who obtained an excellent larger share of votes, and who’s a residing reminder that with out the Duterte charisma, his personal election wouldn’t have been the positive factor it turned: certainly even earlier than he assumed workplace, they’d a run-in when she demanded the protection portfolio, although she ended up simply fobbed off with an appointment to move the division of training) engaged in her personal international coverage flexing by recording a congratulatory message to the Chinese language authorities in Mandarin.
All of this not less than suggests Marcos believes he can stability coping with the 2 nations with larger dexterity than his predecessor. He additionally spent October 6 dribbling out international coverage tidbits: he has continued proposing Russia as a supply of cheaper oil (whilst Russia has joined OPEC in signaling curbing manufacturing); and a yet-to-be-detailed “new strategy” to Myanmar inside ASEAN.
These lofty pronouncements are in distinction to the home state of affairs, which is usually very political wholesome however not with out some considerations that might fester over time. The general public, for its half, will not be as wildly enthusiastic over him because it proved to be about his predecessor (Duterte obtained an unprecedented 88 p.c Social Climate Stations approval score on the finish of his time period), however his personal public help is definitely nonetheless phenomenal. Not solely does it exceed the already historic 58 p.c he achieved on election (itself the third-highest majority in Philippine electoral historical past and the primary majority beneath the current post-EDSA republic): a September Pulse Asia ballot reported two-thirds to three-quarters of the inhabitants could be stated to be glad along with his efficiency.
Nevertheless, inflation stays the first preoccupation of Filipinos and no matter structural or merely coverage enhancements he hopes to perform will all take time. Within the meantime, one of many President’s early –and nonetheless puzzling—gambles, reserving the agriculture portfolio for himself regardless of missing expertise within the subject. A sugar scarcity and the bungled authorities response implies that in grocery shops, prospects at the moment are restricted to at least one bag of sugar every. And shortages in different commodities are equally corrosive to the general public temper.
Current cupboard restaffing factors to staffing itself remaining an issue. He might not have been the one president to fail to completely fill his cupboard, however he’s distinctive in leaving main portfolios unassigned not solely instantly after he took workplace (he met official delegations and not using a new international secretary by his aspect). Even now, a serious place unfilled to today. He nonetheless has no secretary of well being. Which brings us again to the saga of his government secretaries. Changing the ill-fated Victor Rodriguez was an unprecedented appointment: of a former Chief Justice, Lucas Bersamin, as government secretary, a demotion by any measure however one made acceptable by the retired Justice’s selections which have been useful to the Marcoses and their allies over time. It was Bersamin who introduced the president had determined to chorus from commemorating this anniversary –just for the President to finish up doing so. The late Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who ended her public profession by serving a as handy operating mate for Marcos in 2016, used to snicker and quote Emerson’s declaration {that a} silly consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds. In that sense, maybe Marcos determined he wasn’t about to be somewhat statesman, thinker, or divine.
The cupboard intramurals egged on by commentary in his personal echo chamber is sort of a low grade an infection, priming buddies and foe alike to factional infighting that in and of itself, isn’t uncommon besides that it reminds the identical buddies and foes that it is a four-faction administration: there are the Marcoses (themselves not as united as they as soon as have been: the traditional Imelda having been saved at arms’ size throughout the marketing campaign, and his sister, Senator Imee Marcos, a one-person household faction); there’s former President Arroyo, swiftly disadvantaged of the Speakership she had each motive to anticipate can be hers; there’s former President Rodrigo Duterte who has already declared that his social gathering, the PDP-Laban (which noticeably didn’t deflate as a lot as can be anticipated within the post-election stampede of officers to no matter social gathering the brand new president occurs to belong to) will “fiscalize”the administration, which is Filipino English for serving because the (hardly) loyal opposition; and there’s the Vice-President herself, who, moreover butting heads along with her personal father, has proven she gained’t shrink from butting heads with the president.
If the President is alleged by his buddies and political friends to be usually a nice, not significantly vindictive, and moderately hedonistic man, his personal political life suggests a propensity to fretting about safety. Early on, the antediluvian Enrile, who serves as a sort of consiglieri to Marcos, has darkly warned of malicious plots afoot (one thing he wouldn’t trouble with until he knew it might ring a bell). Enrile, whose putschist plotting provoked the autumn of Marcos Senior, absolutely is aware of tips on how to press Marcosian buttons.
It doesn’t assist that Within the essential space of state safety, Marcos enjoys much less latitude than his predecessors. President Duterte, shortly earlier than leaving workplace, signed a regulation granting a hard and fast time period to the armed forces chief of employees, a place presidents have been tempted to show right into a revolving door of transient appointments to fulfill the ambitions of as many generals as doable. Marcos gained’t have this latitude, which impacts his means to dispense navy patronage. In one in all his earliest administrative selections, Marcos created a brand new navy and police advisory submit inside his personal workplace, which suggests that is an space he believes he may with some backstopping.
Marcos for his half appears intent on a much less brutalist strategy to his predecessor’s pet venture, exterminating drug addicts and sellers. Which isn’t to say an outright disavowal is feasible. Liquidations proceed. Marcos has made it clear he’ll defend his predecessor from scrutiny, a lot much less accountability, for his human rights file. Duterte had given the navy and police and his safety equipment carte blanche to go after each the Communist underground and above-ground activists (or anybody they disliked, actually) to atone for his having initially introduced in communists to be a part of his authorities. Marcos has proven no inclination to rein in both the energetic obligation navy or their retired counterparts in his authorities. Portray all critics with crimson targets on their backs panders to the identical atavistic bloodlust of each the Duterte and Marcos bases.
What then, is the scorecard for Marcos Junior on the primary 100-day milestone from which he ended up excusing himself? For each occasion the place he has been maladroit –he appears doomed to being a president with solely a nodding acquaintance with coherence when making unstructured remarks—he has confirmed adroit at sidestepping confrontation on his critics’ and even allies’ phrases. As a substitute, he has left it as much as his combative Vice-President to take care of educators who’re alarmed over historic denialism peddled by his casual on-line propaganda infrastructure. In modern-day model of Dad’s Military, he has outdated retainers of his father preventing the battle of historical past over his father’s dictatorship whereas pitching for a brand new structure.
Which works to point out he has proven an appreciation for the agenda-setting energy of his workplace, which ties in naturally with what is clearly a eager appreciation of the perks and pleasures official journey gives. Not for nothing did Premier Lee Hsien Loong, who presides over a authorities which goals to make Singapore the Switzerland of Southeast Asia, roll out the excessive curler crimson carpet for Marcos, who seized the possibility (sparking criticism as a lot attributable to the bungling of his now ex-press secretary as something he himself later stated). This –strategic or instinctive—is helped alongside by two issues. The primary is the weak state of Philippine journalism, gutted by collapsing income and the shutting down or not less than, public punishment, of important media, and the second is a well-oiled and efficient on-line propaganda equipment whose solely weak spot is that it should serve two patrons, the Marcoses and the Dutertes.
The president himself, not like his predecessor, is a part of the metropolitan elite that considers itself cosmopolitan; not like his predecessor who was a provincial baron and thus bore many grudges that made him alert to each actual or imagined slight, he’s comfy with the moguls who, except for Mrs. Arroyo, represent the actual social gathering leaders within the Philippines. He’s business-friendly in his avowed insurance policies and comfortable to provide his financial staff a free hand. From the attitude then of the political and industrial lessons, the foremost achievement of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. –an incalculable one, I’d argue— has been to revive a way of normality to governance. His tastes and excesses by this normal are predictable, respectable, and thus, even cozy. There may be sufficient Hey! Journal-style gloss to entrance the impressionable, sufficient confidential and thus, discretionary, funds for the merely mercenary (although a lavish allocation for his vice-president might come again to hang-out him), and sufficient of a honeymoon hangover to keep up his critics the place they’re: remoted and nonetheless tarred and feathered by a historic defeat. He stays, if not golden, then nonetheless gilded, little one of future.
In the identical method that point, as an alternative of constructing him extra susceptible, served to inoculate him towards outrage over the previous, the ticking of the political clock is denying his critics (up to now) any indicators of his matching the guile and ruthlessness of his father. There may be a lot a historic mandate apparently excuses with the assistance of relentless social media operations, together with demonizing an already extinct opposition. For its half, the general public that elected him has itself develop into extra affected person and fewer demanding, the contours of short- to medium time period, obvious to a inhabitants much less insular in regards to the world economic system than it was once: inflation will probably be excessive, the peso is not going to be sturdy. A laissez-faire angle to liquidations means terror for critics (lowered to speculating who, precisely, orders assassinations of journalists, for instance) and an odd however satisfying consolation for a public relating to crime (not less than dangerous guys proceed to be comfortingly rubbed out). A primary continuity in financial administration is sufficient to forestall the market turning into skittish.
No matter shortcomings Marcos displays as a pacesetter, he has by no means been shy to level out that his spouse is a formidable supervisor and lawyer (heading one of many nation’s prime regulation corporations in a authorized tradition that admires outcomes, nonetheless obtained: the couple can justly level to the outdated truism that possession is certainly 9/10 of the regulation). Marcos himself has been detached to bloating his personal nominal social gathering, the Federal Celebration, permitting the social gathering headed (in an uneasy co-habitation with former President Arroyo) by his first cousin, the Speaker of the Home, Martin Romualdez, to bloat as anticipated. The outdated Aquino coalition has dissolved, a brand new reasonable coalition has little urge for food for partisan political engagement, preferring the nice purity (and admittedly, political and social necessity) of reviving an equally-devastated civil society.
The one factor President Marcos has to worry is his personal coalition. The vulnerabilities are there. His first cousin, the Speaker, spends far an excessive amount of time preserving Marcos Junior and his personal princeling inheritor, his eldest son, Sandro (a typically-overpromoted Marcos who’s a first-term congressman however already Senior Deputy Speaker) firm when he must be minding the Home. Mrs. Arroyo, a reinvigorated septuagenarian, isn’t the kind to neglect –or let others neglect—cases when she’s been thwarted: and he or she stays the political godmother of Vice-President Sara Duterte. Former president Rodrigo Duterte, who was towards the coalition, is a straightforward mark for his lieutenants. As they’re step by step purged from the administration (as they have to), they’ll discover it simple to stoke his resentments.
It was once stated that six years is simply too quick for a superb president and too lengthy for a foul one. It must be requested if it may be sufficient for a Marcos who may discover it tough to completely take pleasure in workplace within the information that political time flows quicker than authorized time, which may go away him an ex-president nonetheless saddled with legal and civil instances. However it’s nonetheless quickly to inform if Marcos Junior’s time period will find yourself a (Marxist) Restoration Comedy: Junior’s farce in distinction to the tragedy the nation endured beneath his father.
