In our immediately preceding column, this writer articulated that the hopes and dreams of the Filipino people to be uprooted from the shackles of the oppressive political and economic conditions that have deprived them of equal opportunities, the attainment of which, will pave the way for their intellectual development and economic emancipation.

It could only be realized when the President duly elected by the majority of the Filipino people, will use the powers of the presidency and the influence of his office, to perform any and all acts geared toward obeying the constitutional command of serving and protecting the people.

That sacred duty emanates from the constitutional provision found in Section 4, Article II about Section 5 thereof:

"SECTION 4. The prime duty of the Government is to serve and protect the people."

"SECTION 5. The maintenance of peace and order, the protection of life, liberty, and property, and the promotion of the general welfare are essential for the enjoyment by all the people of the blessings of democracy."

To reiterate the principle that should be taken to heart by every President, the President cannot do wrong if he exercises the powers necessary to comply with the constitutional provisions quoted above.

He operates within the Constitution, and not outside of it if he does ANY and ALL acts geared toward serving and protecting the people and letting them enjoy the blessings of democracy.

This columnist pontificated that former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte was the best person who occupied the highest post of the land, who could have done the necessary political and economic surgery to incise the body politic of cancer that slowly but surely killed it. However, even if he wanted to and was magnificently obsessed in overturning the destructive structures that perpetually chain the deprived majority to poverty he was, however, intellectually caged in his training in law and boxed himself in its letter, and psychologically imprisoned in his selflessness and his despise to being pictured as wanting to perpetuate himself in power.

Six years (to his mind, he was limited to that period) would have not been enough to destroy and exterminate the oligarchy that has succeeded in disguising itself as the modern titans of the new order that provided momentary relief and illusory changes to the uneducated hence easily deceived masses of our people.

He would rather wait, either for the people to rise in righteous indignation or for the guardians of the people to stage an upheaval from within, and ask him to lead them to the promised land. But both forces were also waiting for him to take the forceful initiative to take charge. The impasse was never breached, hence the ultimate goal of the Filipino people to reach and attain their aspirations and dreams remain in the realm of eternal hope.

This is not to say, however, that his inability to continue the sweeping reforms he has started categorized his performance as a failure. He was a successful President in terms of unprecedented accomplishments that make him a class of his own, a sui generis.

He could only do so much. But they surpass the record of other Presidents.

(To be continued)