Dispatch from Crame No. 365:
On Duterte's rejection of his constitutional successor

8/18/18

As if his own presidency is the benchmark of good governance, Duterte again belittles the capability of VP Leni Robredo to succeed him as President. He said he would only resign if Bongbong Marcos or Sen. Chiz Escudero would succeed him, and that even a junta is preferable over VP Leni.

Aside from revealing once again his disdain of the Constitution and the rule of law, Duterte has this hallucination that his presidency is a tough act to follow.

Well, it is not. It is one of the worst, if not the worst presidency ever. After him, Marcos might even be surpassed as the most murderous and corrupt president the country ever had.

But how is it so difficult to perform better than Duterte? I imagine that it won't be. Upon succession to the presidency, VP Leni would certainly end all the killings and bring the killers to justice; she would immediately stop the policy of mendicancy to China and once again fight for our Spratlys territories through the maximum use of the landmark ruling of the UNCLOS Arbitral Tribunal; she would restore decency and civility in our damaged society; she would promptly bring back respect to the country in the international community, simply by not being obnoxious or offensive to the world like Duterte was. Most importantly, she will put an end to the culture of impunity in government where we see Duterte appointees and allies robbing the people in broad daylight while at the same time having the gall to be self-righteous about it.

After Duterte, it is not really all that hard to be a better President. The real challenge to the next President is fixing all that Duterte has broken, which is almost everything that was good about this country and its people.