Against my better judgment and after showing how wishy-washy he is when it comes to making important decisions, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has finally thrown his hat into this Presidential race. But after all that long wait… Mayor Duterte is running for President for all the wrong reasons! He is the only one who is running for President because he did not like the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) ruling that did not disqualify Sen. Grace Poe. I dare say that you run for President for noble reasons, not flimsy ones like what Duterte pointed out.
So Mayor Duterte is supposedly running with Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano. This means, adding more to the sheer possibility that the 2016 presidential elections will once again result in a minority President. How we wish that there would have been fewer politicians running for president so that we could have a clear mandate for the next president. But alas, this is the present albeit faulty system of governance that we have in place.
So right now we have Sen. Grace Poe leading the pack of presidentiables with her running mate Sen. Chiz Escudero. Then there's Vice President Jejomar Binay with his running mate Sen. Gregorio Honasan. Then there is Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago with her running mate Sen. Ferdinand "Bong Bong" Marcos, Jr. and finally former Department of Interior & Local Government Sec. Manuel "Mar" Roxas and his running mate Rep. Leni Robredo who are scoring the lowest in the surveys!
Of course, there are some 125 idiots also vying for the presidential post. Perhaps these village idiots are looking at Pres. Benigno "PNoy" Aquino (whose mental state is still a state secret) who is now a resident in Malacañang and it has encouraged them to vie for the post of president. Again I'd like to point out that this is one of the worst things happening in this country where the Commission on Elections cannot even weed out the incompetents in that list and allow them to run just for the heck of bragging rights so they can tell their neighbors that they did ran for president.
With the entry of Duterte, he is the only presidential candidate that is batting for real, drastic or dramatic change in our system of governance. My readers know that I've been espousing for Federalism from day one when I started my journalism career and therefore I should be supporting Mayor Duterte. Hmmm, not so fast!
I'd like to point out that Mayor Duterte scares the daylights out of me because when we last met at the Cebu Country Club last Jan.29th with some 60 businessmen from Cebu City, he told us that he would kill corrupt customs men, corrupt government officials and anyone suspected of corruption. Worse he pointed out that if Congress blocks his move, he would have these members of Congress arrested. He isn't even president yet but he is showing dictatorial tendencies!
What we are hearing from Mayor Duterte is a short cut to our current snail paced justice system. In truth, today in this country there are so many unsolved crimes. Hired killers are a dime a dozen simply because if you haul your protagonist to court, it would mean paying for a lawyer and yes that means paying for that lawyer until the judge rules on your case.
A case in point is my own case. There is only one case filed against me and such a simple case has reached a total of 9 years in court. When my case was filed in court, my mentor, the late Max Soliven, was still alive. Yesterday we observed the 9th anniversary of his passing to eternal life. But my case hasn't even seen the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. If I were the judge, it would have taken me just a few months to adjudicate my case.
Well, the infamous Maguindanao Massacre has passed its 6th year and this case, known the world over, has now taken its toll where critical witnesses have already been killed. Such is the current state of justice in this country, where more often than not, irate people simply get the services of a hired killer and have their protagonist assassinated. It's quick justice if you ask me even if it is against the laws of God… and cheaper too!
So will things get worse under a Duterte presidency? I can only imagine that the president of the Philippines is the most powerful man in this nation and there are eager men in the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police who will do whatever he tells them to do.
Finally, what scares me is Mayor Duterte's unholy alliance with the Communist Party of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front. Until I hear Mayor Duterte publicly renounce his links with the CPP/NDF, I'm exhorting my readers to shy away from this very dangerous man. He may be selling Federalism…but we could end up with another dictatorship if we don't watch out whom we vote for in the 2016 presidential polls!
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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mozcom.com. or vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.