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Cimatu, De Lima,and Duterte

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By: Bob Boyer

 

Two notable Filipinos have gained renewed attention from the Philippine press: Roy Cimatu, Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Leila De Lima, Philippine senator imprisoned for alleged conspiracy to commit drug offenses. Their relationship with President Duterte is instructive.

After reading “DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu and his battle for Mother Earth” by Iza Iglesias in the “Sunday Manila Times Magazine,” February 16, 2020, I made note of it for a future article: “A ‘Wow’ article.” It was the first I had heard about Secretary Cimatu, and I was impressed.

Secretary Cimatu struck me as a likable person and an excellent choice by President Duterte for this challenging position. Secretary Cimatu had a distinguished military career, rising to the top as Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. He was the “decorated commander who led the 4th Infantry Division” in finally bringing the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) to the negotiating table in 2000. The day after his retirement from the army, he was tagged by then president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. She assigned him the task of protecting the Overseas Foreign Workers in the Middle East during the war in Iraq, appointing him “Special Ambassador for OFW refugees” in the Middle East.

Then came President Duterte’s selection of Cimatu to head the DENR in 2018. Duterte’s “marching order” for Cimatu was, “No corruption . . . Manage the agency well and ensure that it is corruption-free.” Idealistic, but clearly Duterte expected environmental success as well, tasking Cimatu to clean up “the cesspool” in the decaying tourist island of Boracay. Cimatu did so, closing the island down for six months to cleanse it and bring back the tourist trade. Then in January of 2018, Duterte tasked his Secretary with cleaning up Manila Harbor. That project is moving along effectively into the second year of a planned three-year undertaking.

What makes Cimatu so successful? Cimatu’s modest answer: “the president wants “someone who does not want to fail.” That determination, plus leadership and management skills honed in the military prepared Cimatu well. He is also a team player and morale builder. And he also ensures that these projects will last by addressing their root causes, for example the garbage dumped into the Pasig River and its estuaries in the neighborhoods surrounding Manila Harbor, and by establishing enforcement rules. Finally Cimatu is clearly a visionary. For him environmental change is “culture change.” “Let us start with Good Manners and Right Conduct at home and in school.” The Harbor cleanup will extend close to the end of Duterte’s six-year term as president. Good planning.

Senator Leila De Lima is well known for her early and outspoken opposition to the violence she saw in President Duterte’s war on drugs. Ironically she was herself accused of conspiring to violate the laws against the illegal drug trade. She was imprisoned in 2017 and remains in prison, now over three years later. She has still not been sentenced, but she has attracted the attention of the liberal-leaning press, shown recently in a “Rappler” article entitled, “U.S. now has De Lima’s recommended list for travel bans, sanctions,” Lian Buan, February 25, 2020. The article is referring to the U.S. Senate’s vote to include language for sanctions on “people involved in De Lima’s jailing” in the 2020 U.S. budget. President Trump signed the budget, with that wording in it. The “people involved” could have their visas for travel to the U.S. revoked. U.S. Senators requested a list of names, and Leila De Lima submitted the list. One Philippine senator has had his visa canceled, and President Duterte’s name, along with several others, is on the list.

The U.S. Senate has subsequently passed a resolution for further sanctions on others who “enabled human rights violations in President Duterte’s government.” The sanctions and the specific “human rights violations” now have to be determined by President Trump within three months of the resolution. That would be some time this April. The “Rappler” article includes a telling picture of De Lima leaving the courtroom on January 31, 2020. The photo shows a feisty De Lima waving, and the caption underneath ends with “Courtesy of Sen. De Lima’s offi ce.”

I leave it to the readers to draw their conclusions about “Cimatu, De Lima, and Duterte.” And I welcome reader comments at Robert.boyer@snc.edu.

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