It’s not Duterte, it’s the Herd

It’s not Duterte, it’s the Herd

MAYOR DUTERTE

By Voltaire de Leon

We all feel it.

There is something wrong in the body politic that is the Philippine electorate. I felt in during the forum with Loida Nicholas Lewis who came to Toronto and Mississauga to speak on Good Government.
Rather than lecturing at an abstract level of “how anti- corruption values can take root in Filipino society.” she went directly into critical problems that stand in the way of Good Governance.

It was not long before we understood that her mission in Canada was to present the current government of NoyNoy Aquino as one that exemplifies Good Governance. She believes that while the Philippines is improving economically being only second to China in economic performance, there are political forces that if voted to power will undo the Good Governance of the Aquino government.

I thought it looked more like a campaign for Mar Roxas and Leni Robredo, chosen to continue the Daang Matuwid responsible for the Philippines progress. I didn’t mind. Most people I spoke to favours Mar and Leni anyway. But there would be a good number in the audience who needed convincing.

As Atty Loida Lewis exposed the machinations of candidates like Rodrigo Duterte, the more disturbing it was to me that Duterte might actually win the presidency! I thought about the one terrible fact that could no longer be ignored. Duterte might actually win. God help us!

Why would a huge chunk of our nation, our people, support a candidate who:

• uses death squads to exterminate ‘suspected criminals’ without due process

• abandons the moral sense, common decency — devalues women as sex objects, hate homosexuals, and criminalize people addicted to drugs

• calls our Pope Francis I a “Son Of A Whore”

• lies about making Davao the safest and most successful city in the country

It’s not Duterte, really. It is the people who support him unconditionally that is the problem. They are combative and think Duterte is Heaven-sent. I will refer to them as the Herd.

If we look at other societies, Duterte is just one dot in a growing right-wing shift. There’s Donald Trump, a racist among other things, running for the U.S. presidency who wants to build a wall to keep out Mexicans and to flush out Muslim terrorists by raiding mosques. In 2014, India voted Narendra Modi of the Hindi ultra-nationalist party BJP Party, a suspect conspirator in the 2002 Gujarat riots that killed an estimated 2,000 Muslims.

Russia jettisoned communism in favour of an equally autocratic rule by President Putin. China’s state capitalism is an economic success BUT without political freedom.

Extra-judicial Murders that promises a Duterte dictatorship. Amnesty International, among human rights groups, documented reports of Duterte’s complicity in the execution of children allegedly involved in drugs. Duterte himself admits to murdering criminals. He further promises to impose martial law if, in the first 6 months of his presidency, he fails to wipe out crime.

The Herd welcomes it despite the brutal history of martial rule under the Marcos dictatorship when 3,257 were executed by the military and countless numbers disappeared.

Fact is half of the country’s hundred million people are 35 years old and under. They have never felt the impact of martial law for the oldest among them were only 6 when Marcos was overthrown and sent packing to Hawaii. Having read it only in the history books, they never really experienced the terror of a one-man rule. Since the overthrow of the Marcos Dictatorship. Extra Judicial Killings came to a virtual end. It rose again to 957 under the GMA regime adjudged the most corrupt since Marcos. However it is a far cry from the time of Marcos.

The lack of collective memory could very well mean that the imposition of martial law will meet little opposition. The army and police will likely follow orders. The Herd forgets and history repeats itself.

Devaluation of women, criminalizing drug addiction, hatred of homosexuals. Duterte has made numerous public remarks and has committed sexual assaults on camera, confident that he can get away with it. He is a sexual predator. There are pictures of women who try to squirm away from his unwanted kisses and embraces. In one lurid speech, he relates how much he was attracted to an Australian woman who was gang-raped. “Raped?” he wondered aloud . “Dapat mauna ang mayor!” The Herd found that funny – men and women. The Herd says, “I like him. He says what I feel. He’s just like me.” EXACTLY!

That the Herd adulates a moral degenerate like Duterte signals a mass sociopathology, an entire people that lacks any empathy with the suffering of others who they consider enemies — homosexuals, ‘aggressive women’, sick people addicted to drugs. It wouldn’t be the first time: German Christians oblivious to the mass murder of Jews, ISIS terrorists praising Allah as they rape and kill their civilian prisoners, Serbs murdering Albanians and Albanians murdering Serbs in the Kosovo massacres, Hindus exterminating Muslims, Hutu and Tutsi tribes murdering each other.

Disrespecting religion. When he was caught in a traffic jam because of Pope Francis I visit, he declared to his audience, “Pope, you son of a whore! Don’t visit us again!” The audience laughed and cheered. Not even an atheist NPA fighter would dare say that out of respect for a religious leader. But the Herd, four out of five of whom are Catholics laughed at this abuse spat upon their own Holy Father. Duterte’s followers have obviously joined a new religion.

What is it that goes through Duterte’s mind that he imagines himself above the law, of equal or even superior standing with the pope? In a gesture that betrays his contempt for religion, he told his detractors, “So what (if the Catholics reject me) ? There are many other religions out there.” He treats any organized religion as an open club, subject to his whim. Duterte considers himself above religion and therefore an equal to God if, just in case, there really is a God. Duterte is a Megalomaniac.

Did Duterte make Davao the safest, most successful city in the Philippines? The Herd said, ‘yes, our leader did it all. And the Herd is wrong!

Davao’s annual murder rate ranked 4th highest in the country. Rappler’s contributor Miguel Garcia wrote: “Senior Superintendent Antonio Rivera of the Davao City Police Regional Police Office showed that murders in Davao have increased by 4.61 percent from 347 cases in the first half of 2014 to 363 cases in 2015 of the same period. On the other hand, homicides (unintended killing) increased even more by 44.83 percent from 174 cases in 2014 to 252 cases in 2015.”

Davao is certainly less violent now than in the time of the Marcos Dictatorship, especially in the 1980s when Davao was a killing field for the vigilante group Alsa Masa and its reign of terror. Today, Duterte wants to revive vigilantism in an even bigger way. That is bad.

Well, how about economic progress? Like other cities, Davao progressed. But not because of Duterte. Since the Local Government Code went into effect way back in 1992, the GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) decentralized its tax revenues and income from land and natural resources. It gave larger and larger portions of its money to the LGU (Local Government Units) from 11% in 1992 (20 billion pesos) to 40% after that. By 2006, LGU share reached 166 billion pesos but stagnated in the last 2 years of Macapagal Arroyo’s last term. In the first 2 years of Daang Matuwid, the transfers to LGUs skyrocketed from 738 Billion to 2.4 Trillion. All provinces, cities, municipalities benefited from the Code including Davao. In addition, Davao got extra infrastructure financing to develop its airport, roadways and seaports because of its natural strategic location. We are on the verge of an economic revolution as long as we continue the Straight Path with Mar Roxas and Leni Robredo.

What can we do abroad: Share this information with your friends and loved ones in the Philippines.

Challenge them on their Catholicism. Will they stand by Pope Francis I or join Duterte in disrespecting the Vicar of Christ?

Challenge them on the lies that have been fed to them about Duterte.

Ask them if it is right to kill people rather than try them first before the court of law.

Let them know how offended you are at Duterte’s lascivious treatment of women because here in Canada, what he does to women is sexual assault.

Talk to them about Leni Robledo and Mar Roxas as the two most honest leaders who serve the nation – heart, mind, body and soul – with no thought of enriching themselves.