The buzz in Duterte's house

No matter what the dwindling anti-Duterte cabal conjures the more the President is closely endeared to the people. Reason? The prevarications are so hastily crafted and reeking with exaggerations. When attempts like these denigrations become incredulous you know that these could serve only as a smokescreen to hide a more odious issue that the political detractors actually want to stonewall if not hide.

How can one not call this a rigged cacophony of desperate anti-Dutrete caper? The pan-handling Human Rights Watch of New York feeds fabled figures of EJK to UN Rapporteur then almost in concert Loida Lewis, a Fil-Am kibitzer, surfaces with a haggard face and reacts like a squeaking American eagle. She who lost in all her political gambit, among these on Roxas and then on Hillary, wants to steer the pot in distant Philippines to recover what is left of her credibility. Loida ought to know that the Filipinos, who used to believe brown Americans like her, are actually better informed than what she may thought of herself.

Maybe she donated a lot to HRW in NYC and to the campaign of VP Leni Robredo and the rest of the majority before who are now pipsqueak remnants of the Liberal Party. That does not give her the license to meddle in Philippine politics.

Meantime in the penthouse of the Trump Tower in New York City, the incoming President of the USA calls the newly elected President of the Philippines to profusely praise him for his successful campaign against drugs. The call which is widely covered by international media to include the Philippines, only drew rebuke from CNN Christiane Amanpour who dubs Digong a murderous president again making reference to HRW 5,000 EJK victims. But coming from CNN and Amanpour, what else is new? That global network was as openly against Trump as it was as openly for Clinton. As they say: 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'. Ergo, woe to Duterte.

But why are the critics of Duterte so focused on EJK? Five months from his incumbency, which we all know also is the start of his campaign against drugs, the President has successfully broken the backbone of the vicious drug syndicates. For one, the center distribution point of drugs which is in the New Bilibid Prison, while under the watch of then Sec. Leila De Lima, had been totally dismantled. We have to live with the classic irony however that while the nation celebrates this success CBCP Head Socrates Villegas with a retinue of ignoramuses in the showbiz industry among them Agot Isidro, Cynthia Patag and a certain Jim Paredes, want Digong to resign.

Discredited Albay Rep Edsel Lagman and VP Leni are annoyed by the 3,000 of drug suspects killed in the anti-drug campaign, but they conveniently forgot the almost one million of drug users and pushers that have surrendered to seek rehabilitation. We expected CBCP, Lagman and Leni to have at least say we will help in finding means of helping in the rehabilitation problems but they opted to just watch by the wayside and wait for accident to happen and then raise their hackles.

But what really jolted the opposition including those doubting oligarchs and businessmen who thought that the mayor in a laid back Mindanao has nothing but a modicum of economic agenda and a well spring of cusses is when they now face a new era of challenges and opportunities.

They sneered and lectured Duterte on the rudiments of diplomacy. Raised uproar when he crafted a new economic and political map that radically changed the rusted route that had for decades permanently faced the West to the nearer path that is connected by the narrow China Sea.

With his commitment to settling differences by bilateral talks, President Duterte quickly calm tensions. In turn he generated financial package and concessional loans from China and Japan. The initial ante on Duterte's commitment to peace and development came from China Pres. Xi Jinping and followed closely by Japan. Russia is not far behind and Duterte is just waiting for wintry winds to calm down. His idol Pres. Vladimir Putin is patiently waiting. Meanwhile our fishermen have cast their nets in the Scarborough and who knows might be sharing lambanog with Chinese fishermen too.

I have personally seen plans done by the Department of Transportation. Railway projects for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao had taken shape as quickly as the government planners can think. Asec Cesar Chavez might not be able to fix his necktie well but he knows the government railway program from A to Z.

Young but highly primed and energetic executives are now in the helm of the government bureaucracy. Also a busy hub in the infrastructure development of the country is the Bases Conversion and Development Authority. The President of this GOCC is a young, articulate and very knowledgeable man named Vince Dizon. As you enter his domain in Bonifacio Global City, you will not miss those huge cut out letters that spelled BUILD, BUILD, BUILD. Before you can finish reading the last, a smiling Vince Dizon appears from the side, smiling broadly which proved the man is an amiable executive too.

Most of the government plans are being sieved by the nerds in the National Economic Development Authority. I describe them as nerdish because they are as excited as they are engrossed by the new projects that require feasibility studies. Am a bit lucky here because the executive who is second in command in NEDA is a Mindanaon -- Rolly Tungpalan. He is on top of various crew who make feasibility studies an arena which is too technical I need one more meeting with Rolly to translate the magma of plans, now almost in the finishing stages, be easily understood by the likes of me.

How I wish I could focus writing in a more detailed fashion than what I am doing now. I just want to put across to doubting Thomases that against all these negative propaganda waged by Duterte's detractors. There are over a dozen mega projects that are already in the pipeline. I must however frankly admit that I do not know which of these are in the priority list.

There might be some protocols to be followed to get the list and I must confess that I neither have the luxury of time nor the money to make the rounds of the maze of offices in Manila. But by just getting a glimpse at what makes the buzz in the Duterte government is motivation enough. This country is on the way up and you have the leadership in the government that will make it fly. Just listen to the buzz at Duterte's house.

(Mr. Jun Ledesma is a community journalist who writes from Davao City comments from the perspective of a Mindanaoan)