https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/04/philippines-elections-2016-what-you-need-to-know
“When I interviewed Rodrigo Duterte for the ‘Philippines Graphic’ prior to his declaration to run for President, he told me: ‘I am not interested in being the President. I do not like to be President. Besides, I do not have the money. There should always be a prefix here. A prefix that’s something like, if I were Roxas, Binay, Escudero and Poe, then I would use the ‘I’ because it’s more convenient to express it. So, if ‘I’ become the President, I’ll give everybody a chance and tell them let us, at least for once in our generation, vote for candidates that could make a difference. For [our] own good, this time. Okay, maybe this time, we work on it. Let us give ourselves about one year. Then, we try to reform. Everybody—the Judiciary, Congress, the Military. Let us do it for ourselves.”Well I guess destiny, or maybe collective rage, had other things in mind. I did not vote for you, sir, but just the same, congratulations! I pray for your new calling and wish you all the best. You have six years, sir. I will hope with the rest of my country that despite the issues surrounding you, that somehow you will be able to succeed on a national level. I give you my word, sir, that I will be exceedingly fair (as I have always been) and will be watching you and your administration. Again, may God keep you and bless you, Mr. President. Mabuhay po kayo.” –Joel Pablo Salud of ‘Philippines Graphic,’ May 10, 2016.
If several reasonably-minded presidential candidates, Grace Poe and Mar Roxas conceded early, who am I to say that they are not right in doing so? If a respected editor-in-chief of ‘Philippines Graphic’ is affirming his mission to be a guardian of democracy, who am I to say that Rodrigo Duterte should not be the Philippine president?
The people have spoken, they have voted him into office.
After all, we all want a peaceful world to go about our daily lives. We want a country whose president cares about national security and its citizens’ safety. We want a country where its regulatory folks and police personnel are guardians and contributors to public safety and security.
But, hold, we are not calling for a return of the dark years of decades of Ferdinand Marcos’s type of dictatorship where all industries became his family’s, and where they plundered the Philippine treasury as if their own private checking account.
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“Daang Matuwid” accomplished changes; in fact, a small businessman, Richard Cavosora wrote of seeing progress in his town in Laguna with more classrooms, more schools, more health clinics and previously poor families able to send their children to school, courtesy of the conditional cash transfer.
This current administration accomplished macroeconomic changes we can be grateful for. Once the laughing stock of the world, as the “Sick Man of Asia,” the nation is now the 70th freest economy in the in the world, according to the 2016 Index of Economic Freedom by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., and the Wall Street Journal.
The Philippine Star’s Jose Katigbak reported, “Hong Kong topped the 178 economies ranked in the 2016 Index with a score of 88.6 points, followed in order by Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland and Australia. They were the only countries rated as ‘free’ with scores above 80 points.”
Imagine that the Philippines not too long ago could not attract new business investors given the pervasive climate of corruption and instability.
But these macroeconomic changes were not enough, citizens observed a double standard, one for them, another for the presidents’ men.
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Yes, our President Benigno Aquino III was honest, but his critical cabinet secretaries in transportation and agriculture left a lot to be desired. They failed to realize transportation and agriculture are major arterial industries that drive life into the economy and support the citizens’ lives. When these industries, as well as power, are not working, the country is not working, despite tall skyscrapers.
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The 2016 elections
40 million out of 54.4 million registered voters cast their votes, as Comelec reported a turnout rate of 81 percent.
When he takes his oath of office, Duterte will be reminded that 62.5 percent of the registered voters did not vote for him. Only 37.5 percent supported him.
As of May 11, 2016, he got 15,877,848 votes, while Mar Roxas earned 9,662,133 votes.
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It means as the first president from Mindanao, Duterte will have to resolve the peace and order situation in that region, get the negotiated Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBM) approved through Congress and integrate the warring factions into the fabric of Philippine society, so we all can go on with our civilian lives.
It means he will also have to unite with the other 62.5 percent of the voters who did not support him and will be scrutinizing him.
As of May 11, with 95.59 percent of the voting results tabulated and transmitted, Leni Robredo had an unofficial lead of 230,000 votes in the vice presidential race, garnering 13,966,851 while her opponent, Bongbong Marcos got 13,736,260 votes.
I personally gave her my vote, as she connects to fishermen, farmers and poor folks, with her “tsinelas leadership style” walking to visit them and inquiring about their plight. Like what visiting priests do to reach their upland parishioners, she would walk on foot to reach them.
I was also inspired by farmers who travelled from Sumilao near Bukidnon, a distance of over 900 miles to Manila and arrived after 19 days. These farmers were grateful for the assistance of Leni Robredo, the lawyer who many years ago helped them acquire titles to the lands they tilled for decades under the agrarian land reform law.
As to senators, I intentionally voted for 12 with a slate from multiple parties. I took the time to review candidates profile.
Voters did the same, as the top slate of senators are coming from different parties: UNA (1), Liberal Party (5), Akbayan (1), Independent (3) and NPC (2), perhaps to encourage all parties to come together for the nation’s common good.
Enough of partisanship and more of teamwork for the nation — that seems to be the message.
Enough of the divisiveness, become a team of varying perspectives to work for the common good of the Filipino people. Be a good teammate, not a selfish one who resigns and goes his merry way when the going is tough.
Did we fail to educate?
In the hallways of some call centers, drug dealing and prostitutes were in plain view. Check out Eastwood at night and call center employees are getting off buses to go to work at midnight. With better incomes, they are targets, lured to become users of illicit street drugs. One Christian Church in America considered them “crops to pick” and planned to build a satellite campus for prayer, right in the middle of these drug dealing sites.
With Rodrigo Duterte, voters reported, “he got us, he admitted to his mistakes, he admitted to killing 1,400,” to which preaching about the ten commandments, “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” became the compelling response of the Catholic bishops and priests.
“I will make the Philippines safe, I will dump the drug lords in the ocean,” Duterte kept saying to the voters.
Never mind that his statements bordered on a Mafioso style of governing. His words matched what folks wanted: safe streets, peace and order, even if achieved with unlawful means.
They do not remember the dark years of Marcos dictatorship, as the textbooks did not document martial law and they were too young to remember what truly happened then. Question for me: why did President Benigno Aquino III not initiate a curriculum reform and checked into the textbooks being disseminated by Department of Education? Why did he simply build classrooms, without paying attention to the content of the curriculum, miseducating millions who now voted for a Mafioso type of a president?
Some of these young voters, I come to know, even did their homework. They visited Davao and checked out how safe they would be travelling at night. They liked the idea of being able to walk at night, free from being accosted by unlawful elements and grateful for honest jeepney drivers in Davao. So they tweeted and reported that Davao is great and so can the Philippines be great. Not just fun in the Philippines, but truly great.
Then, the reality of living in Manila hit them upon returning. The traffic congestion, which took hours to commute, plus the “laglag bala” where bullets were planted by the airport security personnel, further aggravated the citizens who realized that the current president is not with us and does not care about us.
Transportation, airport safety and safe streets became compelling issues which cannot be ignored.
Even though they knew or have heard about “death squads” and “vigilantes” in the 1980s that reportedly killing 400 — only to be corrected by Duterte who admitted that over 1,400 suspected street criminals were killed — these young voters reasoned, “People change and that is before our times, let’s move on for progress.”
Trefor Moss of the Wall Street Journal reported on May 10 that Duterte told his supporters, “Forget the laws on human rights.”
Even though voters went for the current president six years ago, they went for change and that meant Duterte, the anti-establishment candidate.
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Be that as it may, I believe God has a plan for the Philippines. It is time to bury the hatchet, resolve all conflicts and may this country heal with peace and order, economic prosperity, adherence for the rule of law and respect for all people!
“Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation” (1 Timothy 2:2).