PHSenate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III disclosed last week that former president Rodrigo Duterte was not sure to attend a Senate blue ribbon subcommittee hearing on the previous administration's antidrug campaign scheduled for Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. Yet, lo and behold, the 79-year-old statesman made a surprise appearance during the probe.
Rodrigo has made unpredictability an indelible trademark. I can only speculate why he has purposely made himself unpredictable. I suspect this has to do with his experience as longtime mayor of Davao City. Historian Reynaldo Ileto has convincingly explained in his book, "Knowledge and Pacification," that a small-town mayor operates under a situation where powerful forces abound, putting them under constant threat of being squished if they make a wrong move. Thus, mayors learn early on to mask their moves with unpredictability to throw off powerful forces operating in their jurisdiction in order to accomplish certain objectives.
After earning a law degree in 1972, Duterte spent most of his pre-electoral politics years as an assistant city prosecutor for Davao coming face-to-face on a daily basis with the malevolence of his beloved city. His experience as a prosecutor probably hardened Rodrigo and shaped his draconian attitude toward justice, peace and order. Residents of Davao City swear by the necessity of such measures, exhibiting an uncanny fondness and fierce loyalty toward their rugged and unpolished leader. Pre-Duterte Davao City has been described by longtime residents as anarchic, chaotic and violent, a vestige of Mindanao's (Spanish and American colonial) frontier past. Before Rodrigo stepped into the picture, Davao was a forgotten city, directionless and too far from the radar of national politics centered in Manila.
Yet, he still had to maneuver deftly in order not to arouse any intervention from "Imperial Manila," leaving his social engineering project in Davao City undisturbed. Thus, Rodrigo correctly pointed out that nobody in the capital was interested in his war on drugs (and criminality) while he was a mere Davao City mayor. It was only during his road to becoming the most popular president in history riding on the success of the war on drugs replicated at the national stage, that the country's oligarchic forces began to unite against him.
If ever the slogan "unity" had any potency in contemporary politics, it only came in the form of oligarchic unity against the Duterte success.
Senators of the Republic, with their invariably middle-class backgrounds, are shocked by the measured crudeness of Rodrigo Duterte's leadership style and are even more aghast at the incredible support he continues to enjoy from the Filipino people. The reason is simple: most Filipinos, unlike the politicians of this country, did/do not enjoy the security provided by their gated community homes. Ordinary Filipinos invariably come face-to-face on a daily basis with violent crimes that envelop most urban areas in the country.
I guess by the time Rodrigo Duterte ran for president, the Filipino people were just fed up with violent street crimes invariably involving a drug-addled assailant.
Thus, when Duterte as president talked about street crime, substance abuse and crimes associated with îllégâl drugs, millions of Filipinos understood what he was saying.
I really found the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee hearing held last Oct. 28, 2024 quite amusing. Duterte's critics have said they will use the statements he made before the Senate against him in some future legal action, maybe with the local courts or with the involvement of the International Criminal Court. But all I saw was a very public reminder why the Filipino people made Rodrigo Duterte the most popular outgoing president in 2022.
Credits: Van Ybiernas
Rodrigo has made unpredictability an indelible trademark. I can only speculate why he has purposely made himself unpredictable. I suspect this has to do with his experience as longtime mayor of Davao City. Historian Reynaldo Ileto has convincingly explained in his book, "Knowledge and Pacification," that a small-town mayor operates under a situation where powerful forces abound, putting them under constant threat of being squished if they make a wrong move. Thus, mayors learn early on to mask their moves with unpredictability to throw off powerful forces operating in their jurisdiction in order to accomplish certain objectives.
After earning a law degree in 1972, Duterte spent most of his pre-electoral politics years as an assistant city prosecutor for Davao coming face-to-face on a daily basis with the malevolence of his beloved city. His experience as a prosecutor probably hardened Rodrigo and shaped his draconian attitude toward justice, peace and order. Residents of Davao City swear by the necessity of such measures, exhibiting an uncanny fondness and fierce loyalty toward their rugged and unpolished leader. Pre-Duterte Davao City has been described by longtime residents as anarchic, chaotic and violent, a vestige of Mindanao's (Spanish and American colonial) frontier past. Before Rodrigo stepped into the picture, Davao was a forgotten city, directionless and too far from the radar of national politics centered in Manila.
Yet, he still had to maneuver deftly in order not to arouse any intervention from "Imperial Manila," leaving his social engineering project in Davao City undisturbed. Thus, Rodrigo correctly pointed out that nobody in the capital was interested in his war on drugs (and criminality) while he was a mere Davao City mayor. It was only during his road to becoming the most popular president in history riding on the success of the war on drugs replicated at the national stage, that the country's oligarchic forces began to unite against him.
If ever the slogan "unity" had any potency in contemporary politics, it only came in the form of oligarchic unity against the Duterte success.
Senators of the Republic, with their invariably middle-class backgrounds, are shocked by the measured crudeness of Rodrigo Duterte's leadership style and are even more aghast at the incredible support he continues to enjoy from the Filipino people. The reason is simple: most Filipinos, unlike the politicians of this country, did/do not enjoy the security provided by their gated community homes. Ordinary Filipinos invariably come face-to-face on a daily basis with violent crimes that envelop most urban areas in the country.
I guess by the time Rodrigo Duterte ran for president, the Filipino people were just fed up with violent street crimes invariably involving a drug-addled assailant.
Thus, when Duterte as president talked about street crime, substance abuse and crimes associated with îllégâl drugs, millions of Filipinos understood what he was saying.
I really found the Senate blue ribbon subcommittee hearing held last Oct. 28, 2024 quite amusing. Duterte's critics have said they will use the statements he made before the Senate against him in some future legal action, maybe with the local courts or with the involvement of the International Criminal Court. But all I saw was a very public reminder why the Filipino people made Rodrigo Duterte the most popular outgoing president in 2022.
Credits: Van Ybiernas
