Is this a wind of change?

In 1990, Klaus Meine, the lead singer of the German rock band Scorpions, authored the song Wind of Change. I was not particularly impressed by its melody considering that I was and I continue to be biased in favor of the old standard ballads of Jerry Vale, John Gary, Andy Williams and Vic Damone.

Upon trying to understand the message of its lyrics, I could only agree with the Internet when it reported that the “Wind of Change" represented a powerful metaphor for unstoppable, transformative shifts in society, politics, or (even) personal life, often signaling hope, renewal, and the end of a tumultuous era. Accordingly, the “song captured the palpable, rapid political transformation in Eastern Europe, symbolizing the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of peace, hope, and unity. As history told us, the perceived unbreakable band that bound 15 states in December 2022 into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was dissolved almost 70 years later, in 1991.

The years that Rodrigo Duterte reigned as the president of our republic was much shorter than the state life of USSR. But to some people, Duterte’s grip of our country was not unlike Joseph Stalin’s pervasive personality cultist approach. For instance, I do remember that on September 5, 2016, just few months after Duterte became president, he spoke before the ASEAN Summit in Laos, and in a play of translated words which I could describe as mischievous, referred to US President Barak Obama as "son of a whore." As a second demonstration of his personality approach, did not our former president Duterte on June 22, 2018 call God "stupid" during a speech at the opening of the 2018 National ICT Summit in Davao City?

In the Philippine scene, on February 24, 2017, when Duterte had not even yet stayed in Malacañang as our president for one year, we saw that former senator Leila de Lima was arrested and committed to prison on drug-related charges. She was detained for 2,321 days (roughly 6 years, 8 months) and was cleared of all charges on June 24, 2024, two years after Duterte left office and after key witnesses recanted their testimonies.

Duterte’s pervasive personality cultist approach showed when on May 11, 2018, less than two years of his presidency, Maria Lourdes Sereno was ousted as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. It was historic because it was the very first time that a chief justice was removed from our highest tribunal via an exhibition of a case called quo warranto petition rather than thru the constitutionally mandated impeachment.

Then Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang suffered under the pervasive personality cultist approach of Duterte. It was on Sept. 27, 2017, just a little over a year from Duterte’s becoming our president that Carandang said in an interview that his office had obtained bank transaction records from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) on the Duterte family. Records would show that on Sept. 30, 2017, the former president was quoted as saying a message to Carandang: “Imagine this, Carandang. Just pray, xx I’m not threatening you. (But) I will go after you first.” Indeed, on July 30, 2018, he was terminated for graft and betrayal of trust after probing President Duterte's bank records.

Except for the noise of Trillanes, Hontiveros and few others, nobody else worth listening to, went against Duterte’s pervasive personality cultist approach. Not one government agency, until few days ago, dared to do anything that would appear to disrespect Duterte. Not until a Supreme Court decision declaring that the dismissal of Carandang was illegal, to say the least. That ruling seemed to start the crumbling of Duterte’s reign. To me, that decision projects the essence of Klaus Meine’s Wind of Change that “Blows straight into the face of time.”