IT WAS one of the hottest election campaign ever, and most muck dished out as well, especially for the candidate who turned out to be the next President of the Philippines.
Soon after casting his vote at the Daniel R. Aguinaldo National High School, the mayor went to the Royal Mandaya Hotel where his election monitoring center is located and address the journalists to tell one and all that it was time for healing. "Let us begin to forget and start healing," he said.
In the gathering of friends at his friend Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy’s Kingdom of Jesus compound in Catitipan, Davao City at past midnight of May 10, 2016, the mayor was echoing what he has already said.
“We cannot build a nation on a foundation of hate,” he said.
“Tapos na tayo sa mga atake. Kalimutan na ‘yan.”
This election campaign was the most divisive. Friends became enemies, families turned against each other. All because the most maligned candidate that happened to be the Davao City mayor was also the most misunderstood.
Majority of the people of Davao City stood by him. “We got your back,” the people were saying. Tens of thousands even walks from Crocodile Park in Maa to the junction of Ma-a Road and MacArthur Highway after the gathering timed with the meeting d’avance in Manila, and not grumbling about it as everyone saw it as their sacrifice to show their full support for the mayor. We, the Dabawenyos saw beyond the unfortunate penchant of the mayor to curse because for the past three decades, we have often heard his curses, but we more often saw his heart. Everyone else didn’t. Many may still refuse to understand the mayor. We cannot blame them. We had him for three decades, they saw him demonized in three months. But let’s take it from our leader: Let us begin to forget and start healing because indeed, we cannot build a nation based on hate.