That pessimist lame duck Trillanes

Towards the end of December 2018, an opinion poll survey revealed that President Rodrigo Duterte’s public satisfaction rating rose to a very high 74 percent, up by 11 points since June 2018. As expected, the President and his supporters were elated by the survey results. It means the people are behind the President’s program of government, notwithstanding what his critics, who are in the minority, have to say about him.

The President’s documented accomplishments are the reasons for the surge in his popularity.

With the exception perhaps of President Ferdinand Marcos who had a drug lord executed by musketry during the martial law period, President Duterte is the only President who has seriously addressed the drug menace plaguing the nation. Under his term, many drug traders, drug pushers and drug users have been arrested and detained. Duterte’s anti-drug war is so serious even drug users in high levels of the government have surrendered, something which never occurred in past administrations.

Because President Benigno Aquino III tolerated the drug menace by official inaction during his term, the drug menace reached extraordinary proportions by the time Duterte took over. Imagine, drug users among high ranking government officials and politicians identified with the drug trade, all at the close of the Aquino administration!

Marawi City has been a historically troublesome area during past administrations. In May 2017, terrorists in the city attacked military troops in an attempt to establish an Islamic republic.

President Duterte retorted by placing Mindanao under martial law and directed the Armed Forces of the Philippines to neutralize the rebels. The proclamation of martial law was approved by Congress and the Supreme Court. Two more extensions were allowed by Congress.

Martial law in Mindanao has brought peace, law and order and stability to the region. Nobody in the island is complaining. Only the publicity-seeking Rep. Edcel Lagman and his minions are opposed to it.

President Duterte is the only President who has spoken up against the abuses and the hypocrisy of the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines. Other Presidents before him did not dare court the ire of the Church.

Once a cesspool, Boracay is now truly a world-class destination, thanks to Duterte’s order to clean up the place.

The accomplishments speak for themselves.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, however, threw cold water at the survey results and questioned its reliability as an indicator of the public pulse. He assumed that the survey respondents were afraid of expressing their true sentiments and simply gave the President high grades.

That statement is arguably the most speculative and pessimistic public comment the lame duck senator has ever made. Nothing, not even his false accusations and predictions in the past, can even compare to it.

In the first place, Trillanes’ comment is an unfounded opinion, a conjecture devoid of any empirical explanation or justification.

Second, Trillanes has no academic background in opinion research. The survey was conducted by a known opinion polling agency. Polling agencies are expected to conduct their surveys in a scientific way, using statistical inferences and gauges of data integrity and reliability.

Since Trillanes has no statistical basis to discredit this recent survey, he has unwittingly emphasized to the Filipino people that he is an opinionated politician engaging in unfairly discrediting whosoever he happens to dislike.

Why should anyone believe Trillanes anyway? He is an ex-mutineer who violated his oath to defend the Constitution by staging a failed coup against the then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Since he has no respect for the Constitution, his statements should not be taken seriously.

Remember the way Trillanes disrespected Sen. Richard Gordon during a Senate investigation on the drug menace. Observers note that each time Trillanes did not get his way, he resorted to behavior unbecoming of a statesman. In the process, his petty tantrums embarrassed the Senate, which is supposed to be an institution of law and dignity, notwithstanding the presence of several shady characters there.

Trillanes’ recent rant underscores his status as a lame duck, a politician desperate for publicity, because his days in the Senate are numbered. His term will end in June this year and he is disqualified from seeking a third term.

Once out of power and devoid of an expense account paid for by taxpayers, Trillanes will be relegated to the political dustbin.