It’s Duterte even in posh Alabang

I never thought that a political rally as big as Duterte’s would ever happen in Alabang –  a staid upper and middle class neighborhood in the suburbs. Where in Alabang would a huge rally as big as Duterte’s be held? In Filinvest in front of the empty lot across Vivere Hotel.

This is home territory. I was not even sure whether it would have been worth going to just to be with neighbors. Imagine my surprise. There were thousands and they came from all over – rich, poor and middle-class. It was a true demonstration that Filipinos can be united in a movement for reform whatever their position in life.

I went around to ask where they came from and how they came to Filinvest City? Definitely not hakot. The crowd was mostly young and shouting change, they want change. Each time someone began to shout change, the crowd followed the chant of Duterte, Duterte, Duterte.

The middle class was an assortment of Duterte’s contemporaries and classmates from Ateneo de Davao and San Beda College where he took up law. And of course the neighborhoods in Alabang had their usual bunch of curiosity-seekers. As usual it was a long wait. This is the part of Alabang that is known as Filinvest city, not the Ayala side. I asked around where they came from and they said “sa tabi-tabi diyan.” There are squatter areas even in  Alabang. At the center was a huge stage where some entertainers kept the crowd entertained while waiting for Duterte.

We were at the Vivere lobby at 7 but it was not until 10 that he arrived followed by some 3,000 cars. I should not complain because the candidate himself had been on his feet since early morning in and around heavily populated Paranaque. He rode in an open truck and was driven inch by inch through the city’s narrow roads with people joining by foot. At 7 he was just about a kilometer away but it took him about two hours to reach the hotel. Once again he was mobbed in the lobby crowd, all asking to have a picture taken with him. Blame the cellphone with its camera function. A picture with a celebrity is just a click away.

Duterte has become a rock star. There were women too in the crowd that prompted a reporter to ask why he kissed women on the lips. He said, they kiss me first so I have to kiss them back. I don’t want to make them unhappy. I expected the lobby crowd to be more sedate and disciplined but no chance. Here too, they pushed and pulled that his aides had to rescue him from being crushed.  Others who were more thoughtful said “let him rest.” So he was led to a small room where guards had to keep out the crowd from following him. Naku, he may want to pee. Seeing the stage and the mixture of crowds, laughing at the same jokes I thought of Duterte as a miracle candidate who ended hypocrisy when politeness was not more important than frankness and different behavior from class divisions – the Kayo diyan. Kami dito mentality. Indeed that huge empty lot where the Duterte meeting was held in Alabang could very well be transformed into a public park with trees to give shade for walkers when times are better.

Duterte was constantly asked on his message about ending crime and drug pushing in a few months. I think he is being optimistic but at least I now understand the reasoning behind the need for punishment. It comes from Plato’s laws.

“It is a custom of our justice to punish some as a warning to others. For to punish them for having done wrong would as Plato says would be stupid, what is done cannot be undone. The intention is to stop them from repeating the same mistake or to make others avoid their error. We do not improve the man we hang: we improve others by him. I do the same. My defects are becoming natural and incorrigible. But as fine gentlemen who serve the public as models to follow I may serve a turn as a model to avoid.”

Duterte has adopted a standard speech that immediately arrests the attention of widely varied  audiences. In case you think the p.i. word has hurt him it hasn’t. People love its sincerity especially the way he says it while answering questions on crime and punishment. What else to do but curse crime and act to stop it. He talked of the story of how a one year old was raped. Wouldn’t you not see red? Or would you rather be polite and not do anything about it.

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This was to have been a column on justice and impunity. The third and the last of the Imelda books I will write is about Imelda Romualdez Marcos: The Verdict.  It is my answer to Imelda’s claim that she was acquitted therefore she is innocent. This is not true. On the contrary she may have been acquitted but it also shows how flawed the US jury system can be.

The more exciting part of the story I tell has to do with Marcos’ affair with Dovie Beams. This has not been adequately appreciated as something that devastated Imelda.  It will be on sale soon. Like others who had suffered and were hurt by the martial law regime, The Verdict should not be glossed over. I had access to the documentary evidence of daily briefs in the three-month trial. It is amazing that the Marcoses have gone scot free from the abuses of that period. But more than the abuses, that they should return to power through Ferdinand Marcos Jr. It is a story of impunity.

If today we are still ridden with graft and corruption, the fact that the Marcoses have gone unpunished can be blamed. Because they were not punished, governments that came after them including that of the ironical President Noynoy might have known better. There is one word to describe the problem of politics in the Philippines – impunity. The Marcoses became the template of what it means to win elections and enrich themsel   ves without being punished. That is what harms the country. I believe that if there is such a clamor for Duterte, Filipinos like his crusade against impunity. He will prosecute and punish and help us realize a better Philippines.