Phenomenal

You saw it first in this newspaper. The latest Pulse Asia survey covering the NCR put Rodrigo Duterte at the top of the heap – significantly at the top of the heap.

Unless the numbers reported here turn out to be stray (like the “survey” announced by Egay Erice last month that put Mar Roxas at the lead), the latest Pulse Asia numbers are phenomenal on three counts.

They are phenomenal because the poll was taken during the second week of November, two weeks before Duterte reconsidered his position about not running for the presidency. During this period, nearly all the poll strategists ruled out a Duterte campaign. The immediately preceding survey did not include Duterte’s name, therefore propelling Grace Poe way ahead of her rivals and showing Roxas closing in on Binay.

They are phenomenal because the survey covers the NCR, where Duterte was presumed a distant, provincial candidate. Heretofore, the rival camps conceded Mindanao to Duterte in the event he runs. No one expected him to be a strong contender in the NCR.

They are phenomenal because the Pulse Asia numbers show Duterte a strong contender in all income groups. He enjoys a substantial lead in the ABC bracket generally conceded to Roxas and Poe. He is competitive with Binay in the E bracket.

Again, let me emphasize, this is on the assumption that the latest Pulse Asia numbers are not stray. We need more numbers from the other survey organizations to confirm the latest results.

If these numbers are not stray (the quarterly Pulse Asia survey should be due in a couple of weeks), the results should force the strategists of all the presidential hopefuls to go back to the drawing board. All the earlier assumptions about the disposition of voters according to income brackets and ethno-linguistic identity are now in doubt. Those assumptions might have to be thrown out of the window.

How do you solve a problem like Digong Duterte?

When Grace Poe was comfortably leading the voter preference surveys, she was a problem easy to solve. Raise questions about her citizenship, keep potential funders at bay and break the momentum of her run. That worked in breaking the momentum of Fernando Poe Jr.’s 2004 campaign.

Duterte is a tougher nut to crack.

No doubts can be raised regarding his citizenship credentials. It is too late for the Senate “subcommittee” to hold marathon hearings on allegations of ill-gotten wealth. Besides, Alan Peter Cayetano is trying his darn best to become Duterte’s sidekick.

A few poor souls did try to raise Duterte’s human rights record as an issue. But that backfired. The more the Davao mayor is accused of, well, efficiently disposing of criminals, the more his mystique deepens.

Davao City, after all, is probably the safest place in this forsaken archipelago – unless one is criminally inclined. That is Duterte’s handiwork. His alone.

The mayor cleverly nurtures the mystique. Only the other day, he said some people will be rich should he become president: the owners of funeral parlors.

Duterte’s appeal draws precisely from his reluctance. Unlike his rivals, he never takes himself too seriously. He cracks jokes at his own expense. He relishes making provocative statements.

In a word, he behaves like an anti-candidate, the antidote to the doublespeak of his rivals.

He deliberately reminds everyone he is not from the oligarchic political class. That is the source of his magic.

How does one take down a man who has been trying to take himself down for months to no avail. The more Duterte pleads to be spared bearing the cross of the presidency, the more people want him to become president.

While his rivals try their best to appear larger-than-life, Duterte demeans himself. He complains of body pains senior citizens are heir to. He admits arguing with his own daughter over political plans. He declares he chose his running-mate for no other reason than that the man has been hanging around him, like a stubborn fly that would not go away.

But it is precisely the gruff and the impolitic that endear Duterte to those who want to see him the next president. The more he talks like a ruffian, the more his fans go wild.

There should be a reason Duterte turns out to be a hit among the jaded denizens of the NCR. The people of this forlorn metropolis feel this uncaring government failed to protect them – from criminals in and out of government, from the inconveniences of infra lack, from the daily hazard of making it another day in this cruel city.

Duterte comes as an Equalizer sort of personality. The one who will help them fight back all the evils and all the ills. He is Everyman and Liberator at the same instance.

Besides, Duterte is real. He not some political personality crafted for public consumption by sleek advertising geniuses, a Mr. Palengke invented the electoral moment. The cruder his talk, the more real he becomes in the public mind.

He might be the opium of the masses, the one they clamor for each electoral season. But the masses need much opiate just now. Our leaders failed to make us safe and to make life more livable in this city.

We have to deconstruct Duterte to understand the message his popularity delivers. For rival strategists, he is a problem. For those on his bandwagon, he is an icon.

He is the antithesis to the dullness, the incompetence, the insensitivity, the remoteness, the diffidence and the hypocrisy of those who now rule us.