{"id":9765,"date":"2019-02-20T13:54:53","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T05:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.quezon.ph\/?p=9765"},"modified":"2022-01-25T17:46:02","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T09:46:02","slug":"the-long-view-the-grand-bargain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quezon.ph\/2019\/02\/20\/the-long-view-the-grand-bargain\/","title":{"rendered":"The Long View: The grand bargain"},"content":{"rendered":"
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THE LONG VIEW<\/div>\n
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The grand bargain<\/h1>\n<\/hgroup>\n
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By: Manuel L. Quezon III<\/a> – @inquirerdotnet<\/a><\/div>\n
Philippine Daily Inquirer<\/a> \/ 05:07 AM February 20, 2019<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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There was a brief spasm of soul-searching in the wake of the behavior of some nurses at Tuburan District Hospital. The behavior of the nurses \u2014 \u201cshocking indifference to and deliberate neglect of\u201d a man riddled with bullets from a supposed shoot-out with cops, as yesterday\u2019s Inquirer editorial put it \u2014 was at least acted upon by the authorities, leading to the nurses being fired. If the behavior of the nurses was appalling, then at least what seemed to be widespread outrage over their behavior is somewhat reassuring. We haven\u2019t fully lost our communal (and individual) ability to be shocked.<\/p>\n

The soul-searching (along the lines of what kind of a society is this, that has its own health workers unmoved by suffering and seemingly disinclined to live up to the Hippocratic Oath) involved mulling over the long-term consequences of the President\u2019s so-called \u201cwar on drugs.\u201d An incident that happened the day before the shooting in Cebu reinforces my belief that there is a simple trade-off that\u2019s taken place, one I\u2019ve described previously but which bears repeating. The trade-off is that the President gets to place himself above the law, by taking upon himself total responsibility for acts he has ordered his subordinates to undertake.<\/p>\n

I leave it to academics to elaborate on the philosophical and other underpinnings of this development (start with \u201cF\u00fchrerprinzip,\u201d Weber and charismatic leadership, and Ian Kershaw\u2019s \u201cWorking Towards the F\u00fchrer\u201d). But, in practical terms, what we have at work in this simple, stark, all-encompassing arrogation unto himself of all responsibility\u2014legal, spiritual, moral\u2014for any and all effects of his policies, such as the \u201cwar on drugs,\u201d is combining our society\u2019s age-old passivity in the face of assertions of power with our version of the social compact\u2014that obedience is premised on results, the most fundamental being instilling order.<\/p>\n

From people who have conducted fieldwork among different sectors, a common observation seems to be that the President\u2019s policy of liquidations comes as no surprise, since the use of force to deadly effect is a common enough reality in local governments. The difference is that, instead of simply being for partisan or personal gain, here, in the national liquidation scheme, it is ostensibly being done for the public good\u2014and there are surveys aplenty to underscore that it is a fact that the public accepts this basic assertion, though tempered by the fear that it may turn out otherwise, after all. Hence a public that applauds the policy of liquidation, while confessing fear over how those chosen for liquidation may not be rigorously vetted at all.<\/p>\n

But again, it\u2019s the simple trade-off that upholds the President as not only supreme law enforcer, but also supreme in that one-word expression of that innermost desire of the population for order to come out of chaos: \u201cWill,\u201d more often than not prefaced with \u201cpolitical,\u201d which whitewashes a desire for ruthlessness with a layer of democratic legitimacy, as to be political assumes it is done with consent.<\/p>\n

It is significant that the day before the gruesome video was filmed in that provincial hospital, the President was reported to have thundered and shrilled yet again, saying he\u2019d told officers in a command conference, \u201cTapusin na natin ito sa panahon ko, while I\u2019m still here ready to assume singly. I will assume full legal responsibility for whatever it is. And they can hang me if they want. No problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

The offer he made to the police still doesn\u2019t seem to have many takers among the military. And while the military shows signs of having made its own uneasy alliance with the President\u2014by means of his not just nullifying but reversing his previous policy of collaboration with the communists, and replacing their slots in the administration with retired officers\u2014it apparently continues to balk at being drafted into liquidating neighborhood individuals.<\/p>\n

It may simply be a cold calculus of accountability at work here on the part of the military. The President himself has complained that his clear formula for evading legal repercussions from liquidations was flouted by incompetent or corrupt cops, or both; a professional soldier, faced with this (to them) typical Philippine National Police mess, wouldn\u2019t want to be associated with it in any way. On the other hand, the lines of authority, the room for maneuver, the rules of engagement, for liquidating the New People\u2019s Army or those suspected of enabling them\u2014here, the Armed Forces of the Philippines can say it knows its business.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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