Singapore Office of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA), headquartered at The Hague. Photo: PCA/LinkedIn hilippine President Rodrigo Duterte appears to be behaving more like a tyrant than a law-abiding leader of a democratic country. First, he goes after the ABS-CBN network because, according to him, they failed to air his campaign advertisements during the 2016 election. If he has a valid complaint, he should sue them in court. Instead, Duterte is threatening to deny them a renewal of their broadcasting franchise. The fact that he is the president and he can order the Philippine FTC to do his bidding does not mean it is the right thing to do. Take ABS-CBN to court (preferably a tribunal outside the country where ABS-CBN can get a fair trial) and have the issue properly adjudicated. Duterte has a law degree, so he should know better. Then there’s Manila Water and Maynilad, two companies that took over water distribution for the greater Metro Manila area. The companies won a judgment for P7.4-billion and P3.4-billion respectively, from the Singapore Permanent Court of Arbitration in November of 2018. The Philippine Government was ordered to pay both companies based on the agreements it entered into with them in 1997, when water distribution in Metro Manila was privatized. Duterte found the amounts staggering and refused to pay. He is now planning to charge the owners of both companies with plunder and threatening to throw them in jail. He says he has enough evidence to guarantee a conviction. If so, again, take them to court. Appeal the 2018 decision of the Singapore tribunal. If Duterte has the evidence to prove that the contracts both companies entered into with the government were indeed onerous and highly prejudicial to the Filipino people, then take them to court. Also, the saying “it takes two to tango” is pertinent here. If you’re going after the companies for an onerous contract, then you must also go after the government officials who agreed to the onerous contract. It is highly unlikely that both companies forced the Philippine government to accept those agreements. Governments usually have the upper hand in contract negotiations. So the Philippine government negotiators must have known full well what they were getting the country into when they signed those agreements. So Duterte should go after those individuals as well. The bottom line is every act our government takes should be based on law, not on the whim of any one individual. Duterte’s critics say he is tyrannizing businesses while pretending to champion the welfare of Filipinos. There is no disagreement that companies should be strictly regulated, and if they break the law, they should suffer the consequences. But they also deserve to be treated fairly. If not, foreign, as well as local, business investments will eventually dry up. If that happens, there could be serious long-term consequences for the Philippine economy. Duterte must understand that he has no right to throw his weight around and act as prosecutor, judge, and jury in the above cases. Let fair and impartial courts decide what is right or wrong. Otherwise, no company in its right mind would risk doing business in the Philippines. Published 1/18/2020