ith presidential elections now months away, it's time we Filipinos take stock of where this administration has taken us during the last five and a half years, and where we might be headed in the years ahead.

In retrospect, the Duterte administration turned out NOT to be the unmitigated disaster many expected it to be. After almost six years of what some would characterize as near-autocratic rule, our republic still stands. Yes, hobbled and bruised by both self-inflicted wounds, as well as natural disasters it had little control over, but our democratic institutions appear to still be standing.

Ardent critics of the current administration would say that Rodrigo Duterte is a tyrant who bent the rules and broke the law to get his way—they point to the International Criminal Court's (ICC) investigation of his misguided and brutal war on drugs. Duterte's critics argue that the only thing that prevented him from becoming a full-fledged tyrant was the sheer incompetence of his administration.

His supporters, on the other hand, believe that Duterte is no tyrant. He did his best to rid the country of drugs. He may have used heavy-handed tactics at times but that was due to his sincere desire to end the scourge of illegal drugs in the country. He believes he won the 2016 election because of it, and he simply wanted to make good his campaign promise.

So with the 2022 elections looming on the horizon, the question now should be: who should next take the reins of power? Duterte was handed an economy that was near "investment grade." Unfortunately, mismanagement, natural disasters, and the COVID-19 pandemic have battered our economy. Foreign investments are down, economic output is down, and Filipinos see difficult times ahead. So what should our next president be like?

We need someone with nerves of steel. Someone who will stand up to China and not back down. Someone who will tell the Communist Chinese to adhere to international rules they agreed to follow as members of the international community. The country's borders and waters should be respected.

We need someone who recognizes the importance of fixing our decrepit education system. Filipinos have not been receiving an adequate education for decades. Clear evidence of this is our dismal testing scores compared to those of our neighbors. To survive, and more importantly, thrive in the coming decades, we need Filipinos who are "fluent" in science and technology. The once ubiquitous commerce graduate of yesteryear will no longer cut it in this new century. Science education should become a top priority going forward, or our progeny may end up as lowly serfs to a smarter, more powerful, society.

We also need a leader who will level the playing field. Someone who will break the back of the oligarchy and end the reign of family dynasties once and for all. The majority of today's public officials are elected not because they are the ones best qualified for the job—they are elected because they belong to a powerful family. This, for the most part, explains why the country has so many incompetent public officials. They make bad decisions, issue confusing rules, and pass ineffective laws. The sum effect of all this is the Philippines continually underperforms countries where meritocracy is practiced.

So who should be our next president? You'll have to make that decision on your own. Treat that decision as the most important one you'll be making in a long time. The future of your country, the fate of your children and grandchildren weigh in the balance.

Published 01/13/2022