Jess Matubis, who has worked under more Philippine presidents at close quarters than most broadcast journalists, recently posted the following blog by president-elect Duterte’s Agriculture Secretary- designate, Manny Piñol:
“NO MORE JUNKETS, NO MORE FIRST CLASS TICKETS, NO MORE EXPENSIVE SUVS, NO MORE EXPENSIVE LUNCHES FOR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS IN THE DUTERTE ADMINISTRATION
“1. All officials taking air planes must fly economy.
2. Cabinet secretaries are discouraged from using the No. 6 car plate which is designated for cabinet officials.
3. Except for the Justice Secretary who faces imminent danger from drug lords, other cabinet secretaries will have to use non-luxury vehicles like a pick up.
4. There will be no more junkets and ‘Lakbay Aral’ for government officials and employees.
“For the Department of Agriculture (as announced by incoming DA Secretary Manny Pinol):
1.There should be no lavish preparations when the secretary visits the regional offices or local government units.
2. There should be no garlands or formal speaking engagements for the Secretary, only working meetings.
3. There should be no expensive activities during the celebrations during the anniversary celebrations of the department.
4. There will be no unnecessary trainings and seminars.
“This is how the Duterte Presidency will run the country for the next six years. It is a simple governance style but it will effectively address the core issues concerning the ordinary Filipino. Change is coming.”
This is certainly an impressive set of principles or policies and must resonate very positively with the 16 million who voted for Duterte – in fact, even with those who voted for the other presidential candidates. But my relatives in San Miguel, Leyte, a farming community about 40-plus kilometers from Tacloban City, are asking a more substantive question: How do all of these help poor farmers like them improve their miserable lives? Many of them have never flown in an airplane and can’t tell the difference between business class and economy. And they must think that an SUV is a breed of carabao, which is the official transportation in the farms.
As a lifelong advertising man, I’m keenly aware of the importance of symbolisms, expressed in the saying, “Sell the sizzle, not just the steak.” But when all is said and done, what counts most is the steak. The sizzle is just for first impressions.
Piñol’s declaration that Duterte’s administration will be frugal and no-frills is impressive, but we would have wanted the incoming Secretary of Agriculture to write a blog about how he plans to resuscitate our barely surviving agricultural economy, a sector on which over half of the population depends for their livelihood and on which the rest of the country depends for food.
The current buzz in Manila media is Duterte’s allegation that most Philippine journalists are corrupt and deserve to be killed. This statement – or rant – was typical of Duterte’s imprecise verbiage, subject to many misinterpretations. By casting such a wide net in his characterization of journalists, he dishonored those who lost their lives while simply trying to do their job. I was immediately reminded of my friend, Ermin Garcia, Jr., publisher and editor of The Sunday Punch, the hard-hitting community paper in Dagupan. His father, Ermin, Sr., founder and original editor of the paper, was killed by political assassins for exposing anomalies in the local government. Ermin, Jr. was an ardent supporter of Duterte during the presidential campaign (and may have been part of the communications group – I’m just guessing).
Surely, Duterte owes Ermin Jr. an apology. But that’s not this president-elect’s style. His style is brash, bombastic and unapologetic. That’s all part of the sizzle. But where’s the steak? Wouldn’t it be nice if, amidst the furor over the hurt feelings of Philippine media, Duterte were to tell us what he proposes to do about the slaughter of 34 media persons in that infamous Maguindanao massacre attributed to the Ampatuans? The Ampatuans happen to be legal clients of Duterte’s official spokesman, lawyer Salvador Panelo.
Sadly, Manila media have been so taken by the Duterte sizzle that they may be overlooking the substantive issues that need to be confronted by the incoming administration.
Severe unemployment and underemployment (the latter requiring more than the sizzle of a vow to ban contractualization – okay so that’s banned, then what?). Over one quarter of the population “officially” living below the poverty threshold (the “unofficial” figure is much higher because many of those defined as “non-poor” are just managing to survive). A growing economy that has made more billionaires out of Philippine businessmen but has hardly benefited the masses in the six years of the outgoing Aquino administration.
Crumbling and inadequate infrastructure that routinely robs Metro Manilans of valuable man-hours due to severe traffic, limits tourism development and discourages foreign direct investments.
An uncertain foreign policy that teeters between cheerfully accepting the military mantle of the United States or meekly accepting Chinese hegemony, between making friends with Western allies and the United Nations or choosing to be a virtual persona non grata, and between amending the Constitution to allow more foreign participation in the Philippine economy or toeing the line of the National Democratic Front and the CPP-NPA that foreign economic imperialism, represented by the US, must be banished from our shores.
The focus on corruption and criminality is great. This is where Piñol’s litany of frugality and simplicity in governance focuses on the steak. The lure of an opulent lifestyle, exacerbated by the short-term window of opportunity to make big bucks (just six years) is irresistible for the average public official.
But in combating crime, imposing a curfew on young people and banning the sale of alcoholic beverages after midnight is just the sizzle. So is the plan to reintroduce the death penalty. The threatened massive campaign against drug lords and pushers is also great. But even that is mostly sizzle. The substantive question is, how can Filipinos be motivated away from a life of crime and towards productive citizenship? The answer is jobs. In the US ghettoes, the same question has been asked and the same answer given. The lure of the drug lords is irresistible to young men who have lost hope of landing a job.
And speaking of the drug problem, Duterte should learn a lesson from several presidents of the United States, from Richard Nixon to Obama. They still haven’t figured out how to arrest the flow of drugs into the country. It’s the law of supply and demand, something that the late President Ramon Magsaysay reportedly wanted to repeal but was told he could not.
It will take more than killing droves of drug lords, pushers and users to address the drug problem. It’s more basic. It starts at home. My wife and I had four growing kids in a neighborhood in Parañaque where pushers had begun to proliferate. I realized that lecturing the children on the horrors of drug use and threatening the neighborhood pushers (some of them lived in the squatters’ area across the creek from our house) was not enough. Our three boys and one girl had to be provided with a positive alternative.
I had written a pro bono public service ad campaign for a group called, Parents’ Organization of the Philippines, and had come up with two headlines that hit the parents in the gut: “Is a pusher paying more attention to your child than you are?” and “One dope deserves another. If you want your kid to stop doing his thing, you can begin by stopping yours.”
Those headlines hit me in the gut, too. I resolved to take full responsibility for my children, set up a gym in the garage, took up physical fitness and began a thrice-a-week jogging regimen in the hope that the kids would follow suit. They did. And so did their friends. Soon, the house became the unofficial sports center of the neighborhood. And the young people established their own rules. No cigarettes and, very definitely, no drugs.
One interesting side story is the fact that I was a three-pack-a-day smoker at the time. My eldest child, Ringo, made a telling remark: “Papa, it doesn’t make sense. You are exercising and yet you are smoking. Do you know that it’s bad for you?”
I quit smoking the very next day and haven’t picked up a stick ever since.
At any rate – back to Duterte and the media. It’s okay to write about the sizzle, but shouldn’t we pay more attention to the steak? ([email protected])
