by Fr Shay Cullen
San Pedro Cathedral, Davao City [Wikipedia]
The greatest upset in Philippine presidential elections this past May 9 has been the phenomenal ninety-day campaign by the then little-known mayor of Davao City in Mindanao – Rodrigo Duterte, a one term congressman but mayor for more than two decades. He rose to national prominence three months ago by being his own true self.
However bombastic, crude and frightening his threats to impose autocratic rule and kill without trial may have been, one thing is sure – it worked and more than sixteen million Filipinos approved and voted him in as presumptive president.
However 26 million plus Filipinos did not vote for him but for one of the other four candidates. Yet his 40 percent support of the voting public across all sectors of society is astounding. It was a rejection of the Aquino administration which failed to improve the plight of the poor and the middle class.
Rodrigo Duterte is the head of a local powerful dynasty, his family and friends have controlled Davao city since 1988. He is frank, honest and unrepentant in his oft-repeated admission on television of his human weakness and his crude offensive language and mannerisms. “That’s the way I am, that’s the way I talk,” he explained.
Full article here.