No last-ditch trickery can push Duterte down
No, sir, no matter what scheme, what evil designs, regardless of what machinations, and notwithstanding whatever tactic, whatever strategy that his opponents shall concoct to derail his speed and velocity, all the numbers are showing that Mayor Rody Duterte can no longer be stopped. No matter what exposé, what revelation Senator Antonio Trillanes IV may unleash, the people are already decided. They can no longer be fooled. To quote an American politician: They may fool some people some time. They may even fool all people some of the time, or fool some of the people all the time. But they cannot fool all the people all the time.
The administration controls all the public funds, controls all the logistics and manpower, including choppers for presidential sisters campaigning for the administration candidates. The party in power has the support of almost all the governors, mayors and congressmen. The Senate is controlled by the LP and the Senate President is an LP stalwart. The House is dominated by the administration coalition and the Speaker of the House is LPs campaign manager. The Cabinet members can give aid and comfort to the LP bets. All the foregoing notwithstanding, Mayor Duterte still leads.
Mayor Duterte is an outsider. He is out of the power loop. He is a provinciano coming from the often marginalized Mindanao. He represents the last, the least, and the lost. He is not funded by moneyed taipans. He has no masters among the rich. His contributors, like President Obama when he was running for the White House, come from the lower strata in society. When he said that his main contributor is one from the mountains who might be called "Emilio," he was using a figure of speech, to mean the poor farmers from the boondocks. He has no tycoon lending choppers. But the people are many and their support is unrelenting.
The rise of Duterte is a wake-up call to traditional politicians that their days are numbered, and that they cannot fool all the Filipinos all the time. It is also a political statement to the effect that the marginalized Filipinos can no longer be ignored because they have the numbers and they can elect or derail the election of all candidates for president. No matter what Senator Trillanes will explode as he loves to issue threats, Duterte will be unshaken. Trillanes does not know who Digong is. But Digong knows who Trillanes is in reality. At the end of the day, the "stone that the builders rejected shall become the cornerstone." And that stone is not Trillanes but Duterte.
Duterte, admittedly, is not a perfect man, like you and I. But he does not hide his imperfections nor apologize for them. Unlike his opponents who love to project themselves as angels and make Duterte look like a demon. But the truth is: they too have their own skeletons in their closets. Wait, until Duterte unmask them. Those who have the crab mentality to pull Duterte down are bound to realize that Duterte will never allow himself to be bullied. And if they live in glass houses, they should not be throwing stones at the neighbors. For many of them who are casting stones are bigger sinners than Digong. The sooner they come to their senses, the better for their souls.
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