There’d been talks about the fall of Duterte.

There’d been probabilistic predictions that from now on, his administration will go down, piece by piece.  

His most recent SWS survey net satisfaction also reached a record low at +48 which is 18 points lower than his +66 in June of this year. This is also the first time that it fell below the +60 mark, a drastic change in the people’s perception of the president.

That’s enough for some to predict the eventual dismantling of his administration.

But a spectator of all this such as myself can’t help but wonder. Should this administration fall further into moral degradation, what will replace it?

The reason why someone who promised bloodshed and who acts and speaks like he is above the law was elected president of this nation was the people’s dissatisfaction on the ruling elite. He rose to popularity because he was different, because he seemed to understand the people and their needs.

There was still hunger and corruption six years through the Aquino administration that had once rallied the nation with the battle cry “Kung walang kurap, walang mahirap”. The poor became poorer whereas the rich became richer.

There were still crimes, people died from the most petty to the most heinous crimes, crimes that were often attributed to the proliferation of illegal drugs.

Digong also promised the moon and the stars, to say it metaphorically. He was indeed, a breath of fresh air. He seemed in a number of ways just the sort of change the people longed for.

But slowly, more people are now becoming aware that from the very beginning, he was just another bad choice.

We were given a lot of bad choices during the last presidential elections. He just seemed a little different, not as rich, not as upright, not as well-mannered.

But at the end of the day, choosing a bad choice from a pool of other bad choices leaves us with one thing: A BAD CHOICE.

And somehow, quite a number of those who once believed in Duterte can feel it, the growing sense of unease. They know they have made a mistake, but to not lose face, they justify his errs.

But that is not how it is supposed to be. As a people, we can demand. Especially those who voted for him, you can demand that there be justice in everything that this administration is working on.

To keep mum on the things you witness just because you think that is what loyalty is would be making a second bad choice. The first one being the election of Duterte as president.