Decorum

As a matter of tradition, past presidents keep silent about their successors.

- ALEX MAGNO

This is not just good form. It also spares the nation from the din of having too many talking heads. The sitting chief executive ought to be given the privilege of being the only voice speaking from the perch.

But convention, as we know, rarely holds Rodrigo Duterte back. This is the reason why a sense of chaos seems to have descended on our politics.

Recently, he said things that seem to suggest the Armed Forces might have to step in to fix the "broken governance" afflicting the nation. A lawyer, like his daughter, Rodrigo Duterte says things just short of what may be outrightly criminal.

For seeming to issue a call for the Armed Forces to intervene, Rodrigo opened yet another can of controversy. The Armed Forces of the Philippines reiterated its proper role in a democracy. Even the retired officers who have been so vocal about the volume of corruption afflicting the nation were set aback by what did sound like an invitation to intervene.

In a political atmosphere completely dehydrated of humor, no one was pleased by the elder Duterte's utterance. We have convinced ourselves a long time ago that we have elevated far beyond the status of a banana republic.

Rodrigo Duterte was never a consensus-builder. After his tenure, he left a legacy of contentiousness over some of his key policies.

His war against drugs left behind an intense debate about vigilantism as an instrument for crushing criminality. Government ought to be about building effective institutions. Vigilantism undermines institutions. It erodes due process. It diminishes the justice system.