Ledesma: Duterte under the scope
IT IS now a reality and in the national political consciousness that Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte is emerging to be the most viable presidential candidate. The loose-tongued Governor Joey Salceda had said that Duterte will be a sure winner in a four corner fight. But that is Salceda, the economic adviser of then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who can call her names without batting an eyelash. Salceda can be very straightforward, transparent and can be inspiring but also irritating. He is “liberal” minded and cannot keep his preference secret.
Across the country not a few political leaders have shown their respect and adulation for Duterte. Not a few behave like Salceda, others however have kept mum. Many are just waiting in the bend for Duterte to announce his candidacy and then rush on the ringside to be counted in. This is the very reason why despite the declaration by President Aquino that DILG Sec. Mar Roxas, his anointed candidate, we see the reluctance of LPs to be seen on the scene when the former anointed him as his preferred bet. They have to stage another meeting to gather a crowd to make an impression that the party has finally found a winnable candidate.
But it’s obviously far from it. They have to relentlessly woo Sen. Grace Poe to be the running mate of Roxas. But Poe has her own agenda and despite her citizenship issue, which is being used to “persuade” her to accept the offer, Poe gave the president’s messenger a direct retort: “Why don’t you ask your candidate to slide down (to vice president).”
Binay who bared his agenda to run for President from day one was of course the most popular. The next presidential derby was virtually six years away when he made the declaration and nobody bothered to wake him up from his stupor. But as the election fever starts to simmer, VP Jojo Binay gets the heat first. And because he has some skeletons to hide, his closest associates who were scorned have come to the fore with jack and hammer to open the closet and bare the skeletons to the public. His political enemies feasted on it and because the skeletal remains turned out to be so enormous Binay’s malefactors have not stopped digging for more, never mind if the stink has reached Aparri and down to Sulu.
Mired in corruption issues, Binay is now being avoided like plague. Roxas is trying vainly to improve his image with a deluge of television ads. But nothing helps so maybe Poe is correct.
Duterte of course is not immune from muckraking paid demolition crew. In fact they have tried everything among these a human rights violator and womanizer. But none of those sticks the way corruption and ineptness of Binay and Roxas stained their image like dye in the wool. In fact Duterte himself bared those. His marriage had been annulled and that he has three women. He told amused Manila journalists that if he becomes President he will never be convicted of corruption but... maybe multiple murder.
The one thing that makes Duterte distinct from the rest is that he need not go to the trouble of marketing himself or make a claim on national TV that he is this or that. International media among them Time Magazine and Asia Week declared he is a punisher and international rating firms attest that Davao City is among the safest place on earth. Domestic media never ever cease publishing how he succeeded in eliminating syndicated crime in Davao, how he successfully enforce anti-smoking ban, fire cracker ban, speed limits and what have you. The facts argue loudly for Duterte. What may intrigue his enemies is his unexplained poverty.
Well, he is not actually that poor, but compared to his peers who wallow in ill-gotten wealth, Duterte can indeed be dirt poor. But who cares about that? There is now a deafening cry for him to run for President.