A lot has been made out of the first one hundred days of a new President. But that was in the past. Even the Americans don’t talk of the first one hundred days anymore.
If you watched The West Wing, you’d understand how the White House worked. Each Democrat or Republican President, has an agenda and depending by how much he or she won against his or her opponent, would determine the amount of political capital the winning candidate had coming into office.
But the goal in the first term would be about working to win a second term. For the Americans, it’s about an eight year Presidency.
Back home, we used to have the same system patterned after the Americans, until 1972. In 1986, a compromise was struck in the new Constitution. One six-year term will do. We have been stuck with that ever since. We have seen one President ousted by extra-judicial means. His sucessor was also the subject of ouster attempts but none succeeded. Impeachment became the means to oust a sitting President. We have had mostly plurality President’s post-Marcos. Ironically, it took another Marcos to win more than fifty-percent of the vote.
The first one hundred days of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has been meh. Malacanan became the center of political storms what with the sugar import brouhaha engulfing the Executive Secretary and taking down the Press Secretary along with him. Not that the two were qualified to begin with.
The usual Marcos standard for excellence has been absent in Marcos II. The economic managers are all UP alumni but the problem with academics, as my friend DataChimp opines is they lack actual experience and are never held accountable.
Then BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno didn’t think the peso would go past the P58.00 mark. Unfortunately, that didn’t age well. He couldn’t forsee the pandemic but the current global economic crisis had its roots in the last one in 2008. A keen observer should keep his eyes pealed further down the road.
But it’s not all the economic manager’s fault that our economy is in such a mess with food and energy insecurity. That is on the Yellows. What we really need is the political will to institutionalize structural reforms. This is where I find Marcos lacking because his mindset is still in selling mode; selling the country to the rest of the world at a time when conditions aren’t ideal and there is still so much work to be done to make the Philippines competitive. This is what Marcos should be focused on.
Now Marcos wants to become a statesman. This was evident in his attendance during the President’s night at the Manila Overseas Press Club. Tony Lopez was on the same level as Migz Zubiri when it came to sucking up to the President. They are on the same level as the pumping stations used to suction flood waters out to Manila Bay.
This doesn’t bode well for Marcos and Filipinos either. The pomp and the pageantry of the Presidency is back. But what is sorely lacking is action. Action that is felt across government and by the people.
The future doesn’t look bright if we go by Marcos’ recent behavior. The President didn’t touch on the criticism his weekend trip to Singapore to attend the grand prix, reaped. He could’ve addressed the elephant in the room during the ceremonial launch of the Metro Manila Subway project. More than likely, Marcos thought it is unpresidential. It would be worse if he simply didn’t care, which could also be the case.
Marcos has the mandate and the political capital givent to him by the Filipino people. He shouldn’t let that go to waste. He has more than a majority in both houses of Congress. Now would be as good as any time to put in place structural reforms and make the Philippines competitive.
But if Marcos keeps on with his direction in the first one hundred days with the next 2,090 days left in his Presidency, he would eventually be contending with history as the final judge.
Someone should sit him down and tell him that winning the Presidency was only the battle. The war for his family’s vindication and the hope that Filipinos put in him by giving him the mandate is still being fought and he is the commander in-chief.
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