Rethinking, Reforming the strategy

No, this is not a response to Secretary Abella’s statement that our strategy in the war against illegal drugs needs to be rethought and reformed. I agree with him that the strategizing needs to actively engage more sectors in our society than have been otherwise engaged. The PNP is not capable of doing the work alone and a number of policemen acted unacceptably. These have caused the nation a lot of pain.

The President’s admission that he no longer believes he can solve the problem in six months time and not even during his term is a big act of humility given the bravado of his campaign promises.

I would like to speak instead to the need to rethink and reform the grand strategy to address our varied and interconnected problems of development, including poverty, criminality, and a largely disengaged citizenry. These to me is needed because it has been over a year since President Rodrigo Duterte took on the reins of government and many of the promised changes still have to be palpably felt.

True, there is much noise in social media from both pro- and anti-Duterte forces. I am not sure, however, that the noise we hear are truly representative of what I believe to be more nuanced perceptions of different people about where we are and where we are not yet as a nation; the approval or disapproval of Duterte’s main development thrusts; the approval or disapproval of the President’s chosen actions; and our differing perceptions on what has and what has not been achieve.

In my retirement, I have had the good fortune of speaking or interacting in multimedia with a wider range of our people than when I was actively at work.

There is satisfaction, to be sure, in many places over decreased presence of drug users and pushers (though in other places the reports know indicate no change in extent, just less open trade — pushers, rumored to be protected by local officials down to baranggay level still deliver packets to tricycle, jeepney, and bus drivers who, like some call center agents, need the doses to keep them alert on their work, I am told). There has been a decrease in criminality in many places especially where police presence has become more regular. All these qualitative observations need closer scrutiny and quantification before more meaningful strategies can be developed.

At the start of the Duterte administration, the NEDA under Secretary Pernia developed a 10-point program approved by the Cabinet.

For many of us that became the general plan for the six-year term of President Duterte. It is a good program and so we waited for the ongoing results to be reported to us with regularity. Initially members of the Office of the Cabinet secretary posted on Facebook initial steps already taken — some 50 steps were reported. Many responded that this was a good first step and we asked for regular follow through reports. None came.

Many of us also responded to other announcements with similar enthusiasm and willingness to help in whatever capacities we could based on the needs to be identified by the government agencies involved.

We waited for announcements from the Department of Agriculture regarding programs for modernizing and diversifying our agriculture and fisheries value networks. After some announcements the department has gone relatively silent and we are left to wonder.

The Department of Transportation promised relief for traffic at least in Metro Manila. The managers said they could do much of their work even without emergency powers. Initial responses to some of their plans were less than enthusiastic. The plans were not draconian enough. People started to write articles and speak out in broadcast media that the traffic problem not only in Metro Manila but in other urban and urbanizing habitats went beyond issues of transport and transport infrastructure; that they involved land use, urban and regional planning. To date we still suffer traffic which seems, in fact, to have worsened. Again, not much has been heard from the DoTr and the DPWH except for the announcements regarding certain large infrastructure project including the proposed MM subway system, part of the “Build, build, build” strategy.

The “Build, build, build” strategy is much needed in principle. However, I think it is not a matter of building but must address the related questions of building what, where, for what purposes and towards what end.

Our more urgent and longer term requirements are, and these are rural, agriculture and fisheries development for their address the multiple challenges of livelihood, employment, rural to urban migration, food production, population health and welfare and poverty reduction.

I would want to see the Mindanao railway system and the extensions of the PNR to Ilocos and to Sorsogon started more than I would the proposed subway system which we can expect to complicate our traffic problems for several years before the system can have its effects. Meantime, unless we limit new car purchases or insist on getting rid of older or less fuel efficient cars — many old cars have been properly maintained and retained good fuel efficiency — expect traffic in Metro Manila to get worse.

Related to this, there have been initiatives by past governments worth going back to Gloria Arroyo’s maritime highway plan. We are an archipelagic nation and good ports with excellent berthing, loading and unloading facilities, adequate warehouses (including refrigerated warehouses) and good roads leading to and from these ports are badly needed.

We can jump-start heavy manufacturing by locally building more and bigger inter-island cargo ships designed for efficient loading and unloading. I am sure we can build better ferries than what we now have to ease the interisland transport system.

And as far as jump-starting our manufacturing, it will be wise to order our next requirement for firearms like pistols from local manufacturers who have already a good record of quality products. Had we given our order for side arms (pistols) to Armscor rather than to Glock, our light metal industry would have been off to a very good start.

Outside of sometimes confusing announcements about infrastructure loans from the Chinese and Cabinet approval of large ticket item projects mostly concentrated in already better built up areas, nothing else has come out.

I think, too, that government has done a good enough job to bridge our fractured nation. The often combative and pugnacious stand of government officials, especially the President, has only served to increase the political heat and increase the level conflict to a point where persons with dangerous tendencies actually post pictures of themselves holding advanced automatic weapons threatening to shoot people on the other side.

If we are to experience good governance and get our people moving as one towards worthy goals, the President will spur the radical changes he wishes without having to spawn bloodshed the results of which are never predictable.

Perhaps the real rethinking and reforming of strategy is not just for the various declared “wars.” It should be the President rethinking and reforming his whole approach to governance.

Mario Antonio G. Lopez is a member of Manindigan! a civil society group that helped topple the Marcos Dictatorship.

maglopez@gmail.com