HE said that if he became president and he wouldn’t get his way, he would abolish institutions to create a revolutionary government.
On election day and the days to follow, some of his supporters vowed to stage a revolution should he be defeated at the polls.
With talk like these, I dread less what will happen on election day, May 9, and fear more the days to follow. The heated presidential race will not end with a clear win, one without electoral protests. Losing candidates may file electoral protests to belittle the mandate of whoever gets proclaimed.
Supporters of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, the leader in all surveys on presidentiables, said they could never accept defeat for their candidate. Not with all the surveys, formal and informal, saying he would win if the elections were held on the day of the survey.
Never mind if Interior Secretary Mar Roxas is closing in on Sen. Grace Poe for the second place, according to these same surveys.
Duterte or bust! That was the call of supporters after recent controversies about Duterte’s bank accounts and real property acquisitions came out in news reports. Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, an independent candidate for vice president, said Duterte has several bank accounts that had P2 billion in transactions and 40 properties located in different parts of the country. Trillanes said Duterte did not declare these in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth. The drama is expected to continue Monday when Trillanes meets a Duterte lawyer at the Bank of Philippine Islands branch to look at the records together.
One Duterte supporter who recently joined the clamor for clean polls was Pastor Apollo Quiboloy of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ the Name Above Every Name who said he would lead a revolution if and when Duterte gets cheated on May 9. “That's what I'm afraid of… You see the influx of people going to the meetings of Mayor Duterte wherever he goes. The people will not allow cheating. If you cheat Duterte...there will be a revolution. I will lead a revolution of the people, if that happens,” he said in a media interview.
Duterte himself had talked about abolishing Congress so there would be no hindrance to his plans to go after criminals and corrupt government people. He said he would then call for a constitutional convention to amend the Charter to move the county to federalism.
His critics said Duterte might turn out to be worse than dictator Ferdinand Marcos who at least tried to justify his martial law decree by citing rampant criminality. No such situation exists for Duterte to resort to a revolutionary government.
I’m worried about the period after the May 9 elections, when opposing candidates would not accept defeat and instead call on supporters to stage a revolution to insist on their bets.
A scary scenario, indeed, because elections are meant to move the country forward, from the current leader to one hopefully better at being president. Elections are to be for the better and not for the worse.
(ninicab@sunstar.com.ph)