Auspicious beginnings and happy endings

I left the country on the day the 17th president assumed office as head of state and government. I resumed my 100-day respite and work abroad, which I interrupted only to honor the invitation of Vice Governor Hilario Davide Jr. I took an 18-hour flight to come to Cebu from Florida, and after a few hours, returned to the US. That is how important the vice governor is to me. I didn’t come back for the presidential inauguration.

Why do people of all nations give so much importance to presidential inaugurations? In some countries it’s done early in the morning. In others, it’s by sunset. Sunrises and sunsets are the most auspicious moments of each day because they mark a beginning and an end. The alpha and the omega. The incoming and the outgoing. The hello and goodbye. Dawns and twilights, they are the boundaries between light and darkness. Presidential inaugurations also mark the start of a new leader's ascension to power, and the fading away of the outgoing.

In the US, presidential inaugurations are to be held 72 to 78 days after the elections. That means March 4 every four years. Ours is on June 30 every six years. Here in D.C., presidential oath-taking always takes place at the Capitol Building (except only three which were held inside the White House: that of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1945, Harry S. Truman in the same year after Roosevelt's death, and Gerald Ford in 1974) attended by Supreme Court Justices, senators and congressmen as well as state governors and foreign dignitaries from almost 200 countries. These are outdoor public ceremonies and large delegations coming from each of the 50 states are allocated their respective spaces. Security is tight and the whole ceremony is seen by millions all over the world. Inaugurations are momentous times to make presidential promises in addition to those given during the campaign.

On June 30, 2016, President Duterte took his oath in Malacañang Palace. He promised a federal government, to end the drug problem, contractualization, and corruption, and plant the Philippine flag in Scarborough shoal. Today, there’s no federal government, no end to the drug problem. Corruption and contractualization are still here, And there is no Philippine flag in the West Philippine Sea. Instead, we have ?13 trillion national debt, a looming food shortage, and an oil crisis. The peso’s value has deteriorated to unprecedented depths never seen in 16 years. The incoming president considers foreign affairs and national defense so important that he has not found the person to head them. He takes full and direct responsibility for agriculture. This is one rare event in Philippine history that the president designates himself agriculture secretary.

Presidential inaugurations, whether in Washington, D.C., or Manila, are major headaches for the security officers. Imagine all the officials of the land gathered in one place at one time. Protocol requires that the outgoing president and vice president should also be there to signal a peaceful and flawless transition of power.

The challenges that the incoming administration should face are many and quite complicated consider the worsening economy, food insecurity, external and internal threats to national security, crime, and issues in geopolitics, foreign relations, foreign debts, and China's belligerence. Major disasters and the still-unresolved COVID-19 pandemic. The new president must be a superman and his Cabinet must be competent and conscientious, focused and hard-working. Whether we voted for this president or not, we need to pray for him and hope that he can really unify the people, heal the wounds of partisanship and inspire the whole nation to a shared vision and common cause.

I did not vote for this president but he is now the leader of the whole nation. His father sent me to the stockade but later appointed me as a judge of labor cases and I took my oath before the old man in the historic Maharlika Hall. When the old man died in Honolulu, I visited his wake in Makiki Heights, and I saluted him while he was lying in state. My own father happened to be a guerrilla fighter like him. My parents happened to live in Hawaii then and I was visiting them.

When an era ends, and another milieu begins, we should all gather as one people, forgetting our wounds and embrace the common destiny gifted to us by above. We should rise above our pains and help our leader as he shows the way to our deliverance.