HONEST RODY

The admission of President Duterte that he ordered the reinstatement of Police Supt. Marvin Marcos, head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) in Region 8, through Bong Go has drawn flak from various quarters.

His justification that the reinstatement was intended to facilitate and aid the investigation on Marcos’ alleged involvement in drugs as protector does appear to be an oxymoron. The rule has always been that a public officer who appears to have committed an irregularity in the performance of his office is forthwith suspended to prevent him from using the powers of his office to curtail or influence the results of the investigation.

Nevertheless, the President was honest enough to admit his mistake and error of judgment. I think we should give that to him. Honesty should be among the foremost and primordial virtues of a leader. Not so many of our past presidents have this virtue.

To recall, his immediate predecessor, President Aquino, tried to cover up the mess in the Mamasapano operation engineered by his close friend Gen. Alan Purisima, which ended in the massacre of 44 members of the Philippine National Police’s Special Action Force. A number of police officers who were kept out of the loop were made sacrificial lambs.

Even worse is the president before P-Noy, who, with a penchant for lying tongue-in-cheek, said she would not seek reelection and had nothing to do with the rigging of votes in 2014 presidential election to ensure her victory. Also the president before her whose lies were unraveled by a once-close friend and associate.

Nowadays, we seldom find a leader who would own up to his mistake or error of judgment. Most of our leaders always find a ruse to justify their wrongdoings.

President Duterte was honest enough to admit his error of judgment, took responsibility therefor, and corrected it.