After a bruising and ferocious presidential contest in the United State of America that cut an internecine divide among Americans, the nation of the land of the brave and the land of the free has finally spoken its sovereign will.
Not overwhelmingly though, but the democratic principle of majority rule prevailed.
It is not uncertain that the fierce fought electoral battle will continue in the courts for a long drawn legal battle amidst the losing candidate’s bull-headed and unflinching accusation of fraud unless the lightning of wisdom strikes him and graciously accepts defeat, and prepare for a political resurrection four years from now.
Certainly, and unsurprisingly, we have not heard the last of Donald Trump, who will be recorded in the US history as the most controversial and divisive President.
In 2016, the billionaire and TV reality show host, against the unified opposition of the US media and the conservative Republicans, bullied his way to the party’s nomination and to the White House, after having magnetised majority of the American electorate with his maverick ways and vexing language, yet endearing to millions of Americans, who were dismayed and fed up by politicians who have only, by and large, cared for themselves, and hardly attended to their needs. They catapulted him to the presidency, defying the electoral surveys that gave the then presidential Democrat nominee Hilary Clinton a redoubtable edge.
Outgoing President Donald Trump, chartered a controversial almost veering to isolationist foreign policy, even as he brought a robust economy to his country and appreciative people, until Covid-19 came and surged worldwide leaving at its wake the destruction of lives and economies.
Minus his handling of the pandemic, he could have won his re-election hands down, but it was not meant to be. The gods of destiny had other plans for him, and derailed his magnificent obsession to be the greatest US president of them all, to his regret and consternation.
It is incorrect to say however that the Americans repudiated Donald Trump. Despite the barrage of stormy and thunderous voices against his re-election bid, the razor thin space between their votes in the swing states creates not an image of repudiation but a confirmation that Trump has penetrated the American psyche and cast a lingering consciousness in the American soul.
Upon the shoulders of President-elect Joe Biden, Jr., as soon as he assumes his presidency, rest the heavy burden of healing the rancor and the hate that flooded the electoral partisans and schism brought about by the election feud.
So does the arduous task of rebuilding the US economy and battling as well as containing the coronavirus pandemic that cost the lives of thousands of Americans, behooves upon him.
Undoubtedly, the USA will rise again from the depths of the political and economic depression thrown at her citizens by the unexpected and unforeseen tide of forces of gloom and doom. Like a Phoenix it will be reborn.
Contrary to the doomsayers, the diplomatic landscape between the United States and the Philippines will not be radically altered by the election of a democrat President, given that a few democrat senators have at one time expressed opposition to – and castigated the Duterte administration – for its alleged human rights violations, brought about by the unrelenting peddling of disinformation of the critics and detractors.
The foreign policy of PRRD of “friends to all and enemies to none” remains. The special relations nurtured by the warm ties between the two countries that saw them in alliance in many battles will be in constant flame. All fields of endeavour will be harnessed for the mutual benefit and interest of the two allies.
As a democratic country, the Philippines, as always, will march in cadence with other peace loving countries, to the beat of the democratic drums, even as we congratulate the President-elect and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris in their electoral victory.
With them at the helm, America births a new dawn after a grim and horrendous happenstance. It will, as it did more than hundred years ago, enjoy the blessings of independence, following the bloody American civil war, and pursue more vigorously the ideals of equality, justice, and freedom, the bedrock of democracy.
As the American nation heal their wounds and rebuild their society from the bias, prejudice and discrimination that haunt them, we pray for them and wish them well.
Salvador S. Panelo
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel
