What makes tough guy President-elect Rody Duterte cry

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Who, really, is Rodrigo “Rody” Roa Duterte beyond the public image of the action-oriented and tough-talking Davao mayor who defied the odds and the traditional elites? The man who confounded political pundits and his well-funded rivals to decisively win the May 9 election to become the first Philippine president from Mindanao?

Seeking answers to the Duterte phenomenon, I readily accepted an invitation to visit Davao a week before his June 30 presidential inaugural. I talked to his confidants, some incoming Cabinet officials, and even visited his humble home in the corner of two unpaved asphalt roads.

The presidency is, indeed, destiny, and I believe the Philippines now has unparalleled opportunities for genuine social, economic and political reforms under this enigmatic strongman with a soft heart. I discovered that more than his being street-smart, decisive, well-read, Spartan in lifestyle, politically cunning and brutally honest, Rody Duterte has a genuine sense of empathy which is important for leadership.

In Davao on June 21, I heard the eloquent and self-deprecating President-elect say during a pensive moment: “Now thinking about it, I’m really dumbfounded, I had no resources… Sometimes (it’s a) strange thing, destiny….” While some of his closest childhood and college friends were honor students, he humbly acknowledged that he barely passed his academic subjects; but he pledges to use the best minds in governance of the nation to lead his team. He recounted that, during the election, he had few resources: he had no congressman, no mayor, no barangay captain outside Davao City. He pointed to visiting Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos as one of the few politicians who supported his underdog presidential bid.

At breakfast in the Royal Mandaya Hotel — reportedly one of Duterte’s favorites — when I told the Harvard-educated nationalist and Social Watch Philippines lead convenor Dr. Leonor “Liling” Briones that I admired Duterte’s choice of her as the next Education Secretary, she confided to me that she had not even met Duterte before her appointment. This reinforces my belief that our new president upholds meritocracy: that he is pro-people and really wants to change our society for the better.

WHAT MAKES RODY DUTERTE CRY

One of the interesting new officials of the Duterte administration is incoming Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Art Tugade. He’s a self-made businessman, a lawyer, and former president of the Clark Development Corporation (CDC) under the Noynoy Aquino administration. He shares the uncompromising anti-corruption stance and action-oriented leadership style of Duterte, pledging reforms to ease our traffic mess in Metro Manila, congested airports, slow WiFi situation and even the long-delayed car license plates. Tugade half-jokingly said: “Businessmen should try to give me gifts whether at Christmas, Valentine’s Day, not for the birthday of my wife or even for the birthday of my girlfriend (laughs).”

Apart from being a former classmate of Duterte at San Beda Law School, where Tugade graduated as valedictorian with cum laude honors, what are his memories of the next president of the republic? Did he and Duterte have ambitions of someday becoming leaders?

Tugade told me in an interview: “When you are young, when you are poor and when you’re a provinciano (a person from the province), you do not live for the future, you just live for the present. President Duterte and I were part of an informal group of poor students and provincianos at San Beda. I was a slum dweller before with our family; we lived in Tatalon Estate in Quezon City.”

Tugade shared the human side of the next president, his sense of empathy: “Rody is a very good person. He is caring. Mabait siya, huwag mo lang lolokohin or bastusin (He is a good guy, just do not make fun of him or disrespect him), he will directly and bluntly tell you to stop it. During recess and after classes, we would bind together. He is a strong person and leader, but I saw him cry when he was in front of sick children, that was when he was already mayor of Davao and during his birthday he’d ask friends to donate to cancer-stricken children or for the police. He likes to give away his gifts to others.”

One of Rody Duterte’s loyal friends urged him to run for president as early as 10 years ago. It was fellow lawyer Salvador “Sal” Panelo, who told me — between melodious turns at the microphone in After Dark, a Davao City resto bar that Duterte frequents — that the incoming president “is indeed very tough against crooks, but he has a very soft heart for the oppressed and the poor. He cries when he sees poor or disadvantaged people suffering. Rody Duterte is a compassionate leader.”

Panelo first met Duterte decades ago as a lawyer flying in to file court cases against delinquent customers of United Laboratories (Unilab); Duterte, meanwhile, was one of Davao’s prosecutors.

Rody Duterte rose to become the legendary action-oriented mayor who cleaned up Davao City — once called the “murder capital of the Philippines” — while Panelo became a hotshot lawyer in some of the most high-profile and controversial cases.

Starting 10 years ago, Panelo began coming out in speeches and media interviews, predicting that the strongman from Davao City would become an iron-fisted leader destined to reform Philippine society from our prevailing culture of corruption, social injustices, chaotic politics and underdevelopment. Duterte would call him up, asking him to stop what he thought was a quixotic dream, but Panelo consistently told him by phone and in person that even Duterte himself “could not stop destiny.” 

 Both Duterte and Panelo share the same passion for law, social justice, love of the English language, books and singing old romantic songs. Unknown to many, Panelo in his youth joined the revolutionary left and helped oppressed rural farmers in Bicol region, while Duterte also cared for the downtrodden through his socialist policies in Davao, though he disagrees with the radical left’s use of armed struggle to effect societal change.

Another close Rody Duterte confidant told me the Davao mayor wept when he visited Tacloban City in Leyte province in November 2013 after super typhoon Yolanda. There, he saw numerous dead bodies that remained unburied in the city streets four days after Yolanda destroyed the whole city. Duterte brought in Davao City medical teams of doctors and nurses, relief workers for a search and rescue, millions of pesos in donations and even lent helicopters. The confidant told me the tough, pistol-packing mayor was heartbroken when he saw the many dead, the chaos, the destruction — but he was really affected seeing a dead policeman in uniform.

Nic Divinagracia, the 57-year-old self-made businessman running Rody Duterte’s favorite watering hole, After Dark, is the son of the Duterte family’s most trusted driver, the late Larry Divinagracia. He also told me: “I think Duterte was saddest during the last flash floods here in our city. That really made him cry, that was what his close-in bodyguard told me. That was in 2011, the same year his daughter, then Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, punched a court sheriff for not delaying by two hours the demolition operations of poor people’s shanties so she could personally supervise it and prevent a scuffle from erupting.”

Divinagracia added: “Once I saw with my own eyes a former classmate and two siblings try to give Duterte a million pesos in cash for helping their family collect unpaid money for the sale of their house. They asked the mayor’s help because their house buyer was not paying on time and their mother was very sick. Duterte refused their gift — he even pointed out the bag of cash he was rejecting, it happened here at After Dark. Duterte told his classmate he is not that kind of politician, that he is a friend, that he wants to help others. Rody Duterte cares for people and he really hates corruption.”

He continued: “Our next president is a man with a good heart. My late father used to drive him in high school from Digos City to Davao and back during his weekly visits. He asked our father if he needed any help, but father never asked any favors. Whenever Duterte brought VIPs here to After Dark, like then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, ex-President Erap Estrada, Secretary Mar Roxas or Senator Bongbong Marcos, he would tell them that I’m the son of his father’s most trusted driver. When our father died, the Mayor heard the news and he was already there even before the embalming by the funeral parlor was finished. Rody Duterte is not just a fearless leader, he is a very humble, kind and caring person.”

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