Literary work about Duterte.

WHY I AM AGAINST DUTERTE
N. B. I wrote the following three essays a year ago, when some confused souls pushed for Rudy Duterte's presidential run. I do not know if Rudy is taking those provocations seriously. I take the view that Rudy is not and will never be the answer for the ills of the country. His presidency will not be the solution. It is even stupid to elect him to that exalted post.
Presidential candidates, who have fascist tendencies, normally have a political constituency or mass base of about ten percent of our people. I saw that when Ping Lacson, whom I perceive as nearly the same as Duterte, easily got ten percent when he ran for president in 2004. In practically all surveys, he got ten percent; it rose to 12 percent at his peak. But that was all.
Is Duterte capturing the imagination of our people? Not really. I don't think Filipino voters would be stupid to put a Pol Pot in that post. But he is fun to have in the pool of presidential candidates. The following essays seek to explain my views on Duterte and the kind of political philosophy (if it could be called as such) he espouses. Please care to read...
ON DUTERTE'S FASCIST SUPPORTERS
Davao City Rodrigo Duterte is not the only fascist in this country. Even his small band of supporters and admirers, particularly the Davao City-based guys, are equally as fascistic as their guy. Their line of thinking is erratic, when it comes to the realm of logic.
Their justification for a Duterte run for the presidency: We need a criminal to run after and kill those criminals and crooks in government, and, ergo, hasten economic development in the country.
This is an argument that would never catch fire in our country. It is an anchored on fascism, a political belief that has long outlived its usefulness. It was vogue during the time of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler in Europe.
Dictator Ferdinand Marcos learned his lessons about Hitler's rise to power, but not his downfall. So he revived fascism under his martial law government.
Marcos called his martial law rule an experiment in "constitutional authoritarian," but no matter one looks at it, it was, plain and simple, fascism. Marcos used state powers to run after his political enemies and ordinary citizens.
At the height of his power, particularly the entire span of the detested martial law era, Marcos jailed tens of thousands of political activists, religious and community workers, laborers, farmers, youth leaders, politicians, and many others without charges, released them without any explanation, tortured them, and through his minions, ordered their summary executions.
In many instances, anti-Marcos elements and suspected ones disappeared without a trace and their whereabouts remain unknown until today.
The wounds and scars created by the martial law government of Marcos were so deep to the point that the Filipino people took the issue right into their hands and kicked the Marcoses out of Malacanang in that fateful 1986 EDSA Revolution.
Learning the lessons from that failed experiment in constitutional authoritarianism, the battlecry that has emerged from decades of fascism is curt and direct to the point: NEVER AGAIN.
Duterte was intelligent to test the political waters first before making any rush judgment to launch his presidential bid. Playing coy, or hard to get, Duterte has been saying that he has no presidential ambitions, indicating that he is unqualified to become one.
But some people, obviously frustrated by the slow grind of the wheel of justice, have been egging him to seek the presidency.
These simulated provocations appear to have been tittilating his big ego. Obviously, he wants the presidency to be served on a silver platter.
Whether he admits it or not, Duterte is just waiting for some political groundwell for him to announce his availability for the 2016 presidential elections. He wants to know if a critical mass of supporters has come out to push him to the presidency.
In fact, an ill-advised signature campaign by the Duterte for President Movement has been launched by some reckless souls, although it has failed to get the anticipated national traction.
In brief, he is not capturing the national imagination the way oppositionist Cory Aquino did during the waning months of the Marcos regime.
As explained by his supporters in social media websites like Facebook, a Duterte run for the presidency is anchored on vigilante justice. If he becomes president, he will get rid of those criminals or corrupt officials and usher what they believe as unprecedented economic growth.
If he can't eliminate those crooks under the prevailing justice system, the Filipino people could expect him to use the iron fist to kill them outside the justice system.
Apparently, his supporters and admirers do not realize the gravity of their words. They equate vigilante justice to progress, a logical flaw, which is so common among the simpletons.
Duterte's supporters, particularly his constituents in Davao City, intensely believe that Duterte is the man of the hour.
But it has caused many eyebrows to raise and prompted them to ask many questions: Should we give power to a reputed killer? What if he jails and kills the wrong people? Will he admit to wrongdoings and face the consequences of his illegal acts?
These are not all.
Other questions: If Duterte runs for president, what is his political platform and program of government? What does he know on key issues like diplomacy and foreign policy, national security, economic development, taxation, industrialization, agrarian reform, health program, food security, globalization, telecommunications, social security, privatization, deregulation, demonopolization and competition policy, military alliances, communist insurgency, Muslim autonomy and even separatism, veteran affairs, barangay affairs, local governance, among others? Does he have the training and background on these key issues?
Since Duterte has yet to throw his hat into the political ring, he has yet to answer these questions. Neither do his supporters address these issues.
How could they? They are unsophisticated automatons, who hardly have a mind of their own on these issues.
Some admirers keep on saying that Duterte is the answer to what he termed "Imperial Manila" to indicate their disdain the way policies and issues are handled by the Manila government.
They do not know how the people reacted to those blandishments of "Imperial Manila" by Lito and John Osmena. Lito lost miserably.
In my interaction with some Duterte's fanatics in this site, I encountered unsavory experiences, although I could say I was hardly affected. Some admirers approached the issue personally, believing that an anti-Duterte stance is an affront to their idol.
They have called me names and they even cursed me. Since they do not know civilized debate, I gave them a dose of their own medicine, something which they could not handle.
Others are hypersensitive crybabies, who keep whimpering endlessly when I called them stupid. A moron noticed what he described as my wrong grammar. This idiot does not write. He does not know that even the best among writers commit occasional grammatical lapses for the simple reason that English is a borrowed language.
Writers hardly dwell on those lapses. They measure the intellectual depth and prowess of another writer on the basis of the substance of his written works.
They raised a howl when I described them as second class citizens, a bunch of blabbering babboons.
Duterte has yet to run for president, but his narrowminded supporters are already showing their fascistic tendencies by ramming into our throats an unsustainable candidacy. They are the ones ruining his chances.
Duterte could be partly successful in Davao City. In the absence of any political big guns in that southern city, Duterte is the political kingpin, giving credence to the old adage that "in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed is king."
But Duterte knows Metro Manila and other major cities are different. He knows too that he would be treated differently the moment he throws his hat into the political ring. Poste on Feb. 12, 2014

OF DUTERTE'S VIGILANTE JUSTICE
I read with a chuckle the way netizens responded to my post re Davao City Rodrigo Duterte's bravado (please see the post on my timeline). A lot readily agreed with me that Duterte was not fit to become president of this country.
Others, mostly his constituents in Davao City, defended their idol, as if the future of this country depended on one man, i.e. the armalite-toting local official from Mindanao.
Some netizens were frothing in the mouth in anger, as they expressed disbelief to my assertion that Duterte was totally unfit to become our next chief executive.
Others called me names, mostly ad hominem attacks, to which I am so accustomed as a media man. I always believe that I receive as much as I give. So, it's no big deal to me.
But I maintain - and will continue to maintain - that Duterte is an aberration, or an abnormality, in Philippine politics. I wonder under what specific political platform or program will Duterte run as president of this country.
Except for a thing or two, this issue is not exactly clear at the moment. Neither is it adequately addressed.
Judging from the press reports that I have read and heard, Duterte was waiting for a political groundswell for him to throw his hat into the political ring. If he felt that he had that critical mass of supporters (which could vary depending on the beholder), he would surely run for president.
Politicians are one and the same everywhere. If he thought the public office he was coveting and seeking would be given to him on a silver platter, he would take it. And why not?
Duterte's attraction to some people is largely a function of his belief - or even his defenders' belief - on vigilante justice. Acting fast on criminals, killing them outright, or crippling their capacity to harm our people is the sure way to prosper this country to unprecedented progress.
Following Duterte's flow of thought, or his supporters', what this country needs is the Philippine version of Pol Pot, a mass murderer of murderers, grafters, drug addicts, drug pushers, jaywalkers, swindlers, snatchers, petty thieves, rumor mongers, adulterers, exhibitionists, online estafadores, and others.
If we follow Duterte's line of thinking, or his defenders' - no matter how myopic or faulty, this country would take off from the quagmire of mass poverty so long as we get rid of these criminals.
And when we get rid of them, we would just have to kill them without the benefit of the legal process, or court trial. This is vigilante justice, plain and simple. I shudder at the mere thought of a presidential pretender to pursue this vigilantism.
Never in our history did a presidential wannabe banked his candidacy on vigilantism. Ferdinand Marcos or even Ping Lacson did not do it.
Because he has yet to declare his political intentions, Duterte has not been subjected to public scrunity. But the moment that he declares his availability to seek the nation's highest political post, he will be a fair game.
Everything about him will be put to public scrutiny. He will be unmasked. Public opinion about him will crystallize.
To those people, who have simplistic mind to allow them to think that running for the presidency is so simple, I beg to disagree. Your idol will definitely undergo the public process of careful scrunity and examination.
Despite the absence of a well defined party system, successful presidential candidates won on the basis of their viable political platform and programs.
Their programs have many dimensions, although they also have mastered the art and science of presenting their programs in the easiest to understand language.
But they could never be accused of being one-dimensional, much unlike Duterte, who is basically a one-dimension politician.
Duterte's politics, or his strange belief in vigilante justice, may work in Davao City, but not for the entire Philippines.
The reason is simple; our country's problems has many dimensions, not just criminality and dispensation of justice.
Duterte - or his band of supporters - may brag that he solved drug addiction by killing and running after those drug pushers in Davao City.
I doubt if he knows that those drug pushers have just transferred their base of operations elsewhere, probably to Cebu City, Cagayan de Oro City, or even Metro Manila.
In that case, he does not exactly solve the issue of drug addiction in the country. What he has done is its transfer elsewhere. I just hope his defenders would understand my point.
Vigilante justice has no place in our society. It may work, if they get the real criminals - the Barabbases and Hestases of our society.
But what if they make a mistake? What is the people they arrest, imprison, and eventually kill are not criminals? Who will be responsible?
Will Duterte admit mistakes or suffer the consequences? These are the questions that have to be answered. Posted on Feb. 10, 2014

OF DUTERTE'S BRAVADO
I would be honest with everybody here at FB. I am not exactly tittilated by Davao City Mayor Duterte's bravado - and bravura - that he would kill that slit-eyed alleged rice smuggler.
Neither am I scintillated by the prospect that he could be president of this country by 2016. I treat Duterte's threat to exterminate that rice smuggler as mere expression of his frustrations at the way the national leadership has been responding to the issue of rice smuggling.
I know he could do it. But I don't care.
No, I don't think he could be president by issuing those threats. Duterte could be the male version - backward at worst - of Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who, as then immigration commissioner in early 1990s, went on a castration binge, threatening those unkempt, penniless, and dazed backpackers and tourists of deportation because of alleged misdemeanors.
While he could capture the national imagination the way Miriam did during those days, Duterte could not become president by simply issuing those death threats to the rice smuggler. It takes more than bravado - bravura - to become president.
We can all clap our hands to his public demonstration of bravado, but this is not the qualification for the presidency.
As a sociology major in college, I took the subject Sociology of Collective Behavior and learned that collective behavior could be unpredictable, or very unpredictable, to say the obvious.
Duterte's all too sudden fame arising from his utterances could be described as a mere fad, a flash in the pan. It is something that would not last and fade away.
When we regain our senses, we would discover that we don't put a killer, potential or actual, to the presidency. It is a political post that requires a different perspective, ranging from a sense of history to magnanimity and loftiness. A
president is one who looks with his vision, thinks with his conscience, and lives with his soul. He is a different material from a pistol-whacking, armalite toting son of a bitch.
It's a good thing that Duterte is not thrilled by those encouragements for him to run for president. It's a good thing too that he knows his limitations. But nobody is so sure that his disavowal of any presidential ambitions is final.
Who knows? But, if ever he throws his hat into the ring, Duterte should be told that he faces a lot of challenges, ranging from mastery of so many issues and, of course, the necessity of public recall.
Voters in Luzon and the Visayas may not be exactly enamored to a presidential candidate from Mindanao. But that will be a different story.
For the meantime, let's tell Mayor Duterte that it would be for his constituents' interest for him to remain in Davao City. Posted on Feb. 4, 2014