DAVAO CITY—Around this time when presidents usually see their trust ratings plummet, indicating that the honeymoon period is over, analysts based here agree that President Duterte’s political will allowed him to continue enjoying high ratings.
His brusque manner and his choice of words may be unpalatable to the well-heeled and the elite, but analysts told the BusinessMirror that he also earned high marks for the policies rolled out by his administration.
“Indeed, his manner of speaking, occasionally, may sound divisive, which does not jibe well with the desired move to unify the nation after the most divisive elections in May 2016,” said Ramon B. Beleno III, chairman of the Political Science Department at the Ateneo de Davao University.
His words notwithstanding, Duterte’s “overarching advantage” was his unabashed demonstration of political will “and his administration’s policies,” Beleno added, “which are practical and pragmatic that earned him his rightful badge of high trust and performance ratings.”
At this time of the tenure of a president, surveys would have shown a huge dip in his ratings from high levels that are commonly seen during his first year in office, or the so-called honeymoon period, according to Adrian Tamayo of the Institute of Popular Opinion, the research arm of the University of Mindanao.
Political will
The President is able to exhibit a political will that is absent in past administrations because he has no political debts to repay and is not beholden to political alliances, according to analysts.
Beleno and Tamayo said the shots fired by the political opposition hardly made a dent in the President’s ratings, “as his policies were soon to be felt by the people immediately when they transact business in local government offices, when driver’s licenses are extended to five years, when passport issuances are put in order, and many other government front-desk transactions are shortened and directed to be done in one-stop shops.”
“These things are indispensable for the ordinary Filipino and can not be simply dismissed as not the product of a President who walks the talk during the elections,” they added.
The President has promised change, and people now see this when they find it easier to acquire permits or licenses, and fees have been slashed, and when their complaints get acted upon by authorities, even in barangays, Belen and Tamayo said.
Remember, they said, “Duterte has always said in his speeches that he has practically no national solid supporters when he ran for the Presidency.”
Also, Tamayo said, “Duterte has shown that he was not one to be cowed when it comes to implementing even unpopular laws, such as the war on drugs, the warning and actual hit against the oligarchs and the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion [Train] law.”
“Until now, he has said he would not yield his war on drugs, and everyone knows that it was not only a political gimmick and, obviously, it would neither earn the President the ‘pogi’ points that all politicians would die or kill for,” he said.
Beleno added, “It is this race to get pogi points that would occasionally jack survey ratings up” for presidents and other senior government officials in the post-honeymoon period.
“But, for President Duterte, he would not care for the pogi points. And everybody also knows that many of his policies are not popular anyway,” he said.
Taxing the rich, ‘bad goods’
At this time of the year, when business would have taken its wait-and-see
attitude on how the President executes laws, Tamayo said, “You would note how the Philippine stocks index has gone up.”
“Apparently, it is how Mr. Duterte pushed the TRAIN law’s implementation,” he added. “This has been there for quite some time, but it would take a Duterte to do it.” On the Train law, Tamayo explained it as a law “that grants wage earners the extra income to spend, the idea of a disposable income that the economy has desired.”
“We know that, every now and then, the price of oil would go up and down and fluctuate as frequently as we see it, making us the hapless witnesses to rising prices of basic commodities,” he said.
“What is positive with TRAIN is that, this time, under a similar expected episode of price increases, the wage earners have a buffer, something extra to dip into their pockets in the midst of these oil price-triggered increases,” Tamayo added.
On the new round of excise taxes on oil and liquor and cigarettes, Tamayo said, “It is only in the Philippines where products with acknowledged adverse effect on the health of the population have prices that are easily within reach of even the poor.”
“In other countries, cigarettes and liquors are priced so high that only those who have the money to indulge on these harmful items and the money to seek medical care as a consequence of using these could buy them,” he added.
“I think it is time to remove the opium-like addictive products these companies are peddling to ordinary people,” Tamayo said.
Davao’s pride
While admitting he has some concerns on the war on drugs, Beleno said Duterte, “without doubt, is someone all Davaoenos could be proud of.”
“He has consistently pushed on programs that have been implemented here in Davao, and residents here could easily relate to them as the foundation of a national well-being that we have first tasted and experienced here,” he added.
“Investments have been coming in faster than before despite his innuendos and direct broadsides against the US, the United Nations and the European Union,” Beleno said.
Yet, he added, “This has also opened the avenue for the Philippines to relate to countries that were previously kept away by our relations with the US. ” Even the West has changed its assessment on the Philippines. Beleno said one powerful Western country has aggressively increased its financing and renewed its political relations with the Philippines despite its known stance on human rights.