Nation-building under Duterte

I was at the Century Plaza hotel when Duterte was proclaimed as the PDP LABAN presidential candidate. It was a full house. He was late. I think I must have eaten two bibingkas in the café before people rushed to the door. “He’s here. Nandiyan na daw. “There was loud cheering – “Duterte…Duterte…”

My companions said, “He has arrived finally but were told he could not get in because of a group of seamen who blocked him at the door so they can take pictures with their selfies.”

Because of such adulation for Duterte he was described as a rock star. At that time, like most of those who came, I just wanted to know this man who would dare challenge the political elite and oligarchy of the Philippines without money, machinery, or all the things a candidate must have to win an election in the Philippines. It was impossible. He was a dreamer. And so were all of us who followed him in his impossible odyssey.

He said he had no prepared speech and then rambled on and on for almost two hours and the audience clapping and screaming “Rebolusyon, rebolusyon” unmindful of the niceties expected in political meetings. He talked to a standing room as if the audience were his buddies drinking beer.

He was cheered and applauded.  The audiences gasped when he used the “p…i…m” curse when he told the story of how he was stuck in traffic when the Pope came for a visit. But the audience ignored it. We needed a candidate who would promise change and do it and able to connect with his audience. For all the years we have been waiting for such a man, he appeared that morning…

The theme of his leadership was two-fold:  how to make our country a strong nation that would earn the respect of the world. These are clichés we have lived with for generations but never happened.

It has to do with the difference between a country and a nation. I am one of those who believe that it has a nuanced difference. That is at the heart of the Duterte political doctrine. He wants Filipinos to love their country and work for the good of its people.

He is aware of the difficulties of nation building after a long history of colonization by two superpowers of their time – Spain and the US.  But we have our own strengths and Filipinos must call in these qualities. We should not forget our country was the first constitutional republic of the region and many died in pursuit of freedom and justice.

We have a last chance with the election of this unorthodox politician.

To achieve this, more and more Filipinos have realized that a revolutionary government is necessary.

Still he cannot be the one to organize revolutionary government. It will be seen as self-serving. Therefore the ball is in the people’s court. It is they who elected him in what many have called a miracle and God-ordained. Those opposing change include local Liberals and their associates in an international movement.

Recently, Rodrigo Duterte made international headlines when he rebuked Barack Obama, president of the most powerful nation and former colonizer. Here’s a good write up from a blog called Conversation that talks of this excellently.

“If that were all there was – the rebuke of the American President – we could rightly roll our eyes and move on. After all, Duterte’s language is vulgar; his slander of people and groups is liable to incite violence; and his determination to kill drug pushers (to fight “crime with crime”) an abuse of power. He should not be defended for any of this.

“But as someone who has spent a long time studying US-Philippine relations, I think there’s something more for us to see here. And if we want to judge the Philippine president (and, by default, the nation for electing him) from high moral ground, I think we have a responsibility to pay attention to it.

“He then moves on to ‘restoring an invisible history.’

Who is he to question me about human rights and extrajudicial killings? So asked Duterte. It’s actually a very good question, and one long overdue from a Philippine president. The extent to which the violence of US relations with the Philippines has been made invisible by a history written predominantly by Americans themselves cannot be overstated.

“It began with a three-year war (1899-1902) that most Americans have never heard of. The war overthrew a newly independent Philippine republic and cost between 250,000 and a million Filipino lives – only to be called ‘a great misunderstanding’ by American colonial writers.

After all, the US had chosen the Philippines to be its great Asian ‘showcase of democracy.’ The invasion was a benevolent act. Hence the complete erasure of acts of American violence from the Philippine national story.”

Where was the leader who would be the symbol to unite Filipinos to work for social and economic change that would benefit the many? Former President Fidel V Ramos had gone to Davao to meet with Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. He had the courage, he had a good track record as mayor of Davao, and, most of all, was untainted by corruption. He lived in a small house and ran the city well. He was described as someone who could be the Lee Kuan Yew of the Philippines. You would think that he would jump at such a suggestion. Instead, he refused it and said he would talk to his family.

But just as hopeful Filipinos had given up that Duterte would accept the challenge of running for president of the Philippines, he changed his mind. At the launch of his candidacy he didn’t have a prepared speech to those present. These were the poor and marginal sectors. It was an exhilarating experience of seeing and hearing a man speak his mind pushed by the tugging at his heart. He was in a fighting mood, speaking in the language of his constituency. There was much cursing but isn’t that how the poor and marginalized talk? – someone like them and lived like them and understood them.

After that launch, Duterte found his mettle. It was time that politics be about the needs of his countrymen. He will serve. The crowd clapped deliriously even if they had spent their last pesos to come. I had to ask them, “Did you come on your own or were you hakot?” and the answer came from the young and old, “Kusa po kaming pumunta para marinig namin si Duterte.”

The response was phenomenal.