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[av_heading heading=’The unwanted change has come ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY HERBERT VEGO
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Sunday, February 26, 2017
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IT BOTHERS us that today’s political clime does not augur well for the perceived unity engendered by the bloodless People Power Revolution that toppled the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship in 1986. Yesterday’s 31st anniversary of that historical epoch disbanded unity and engendered political polarization – what with so-called “freedom rallies” in Manila and elsewhere focused on the “war against corruption, crime and drugs.” Was there a collaborative intent to abandon EDSA and to “move on”?
Does “moving on” mirror the existence of collaborative forces crafting an idol out of incumbent President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte? It looks likely, what with the emergence of resistant forces depicting Duterte as an emerging dictator.
No use belaboring that point; it has been widely opined on TV, radio and in the print media. Already, the internet has become the venue of the clash of clans, namely the “Dutertards” and “Yellowtards” – referring to adherents of Duterte and his predecessor Benigno Simeon “PNoy” Aquino III, respectively. If words could kill, the number of “trolls” killed could have exceeded that of 7,000 victims of extrajudicial killings.
Alas and alack, both coined words connote a change tantamount to mental retardation; hence derogatory to those alluded to.
It is ironic because Digong and PNoy have sprung from the same political root – the latter’s late mother, President Corazon “Cory” Aquino. Most internet clashers are probably unaware that Duterte owes his political rise to Cory, as we shall discover down memory lane.
It was Cory – a close friend and political ally of Digong’s mother (the late Soledad Roa-Duterte) – who launched Duterte’s political career during the infancy of her post-EDSA accession to the presidency in 1986 by appointing him officer-in-charge vice mayor of Davao City. Until then, he had worked as lawyer and city fiscal.
Duterte did not see himself a stranger in politics though. His father (Vicente Duterte) and his mother had both served as governor of the province of Davao.
Having tested his strong leadership, the people of Davao City elected Digong mayor for the first time in 1988. Since then, he has never stopped running and winning either as mayor, congressman or vice mayor. He was mayor once more when he decided to run for President in the May 9, 2016 election.
It was an unusual run under the already floundering PDP-Laban party and against Aquino’s anointed one, Mar Roxas. Worse, he had an incomplete set of neophyte senatorial candidates, who would all lose. His saving grace was an efficient propaganda machinery that stressed his campaign promises – to wage war on drugs, to establish a federal government and to eliminate graft and corruption. The trick captured public awe.
PNoy and his cohorts in the Liberal Party (LP) must have perceived the growing number of those awed ones. They had to counter-strike by projecting Duterte as a potential dictator. In his campaign speech for LP candidate Mar Roxas in Iloilo on May 3, 2016, he warned against Duterte, adding that he was willing to lay down his life to stop the country from going back to martial law.
“I have only 58 days left,” he said. “I will be an ordinary citizen. If ever our fears become true and he becomes a dictator, do you think I can still act? I’d probably be number one in his order of battle.”
Today on our viewfinder, we don’t see PNoy in the battleground.
He probably thinks “no use”; the once powerful LP has shrunk into a negligible pincher, proving once again that our selfish politicians tend to cling to him who calls the shots.
It is hard to decipher why Duterte the shot caller – despite of his foul mouth and acts that his critics deem “inimical to the rule of law” – remains popular.
But his change must come. He knows that, as in the case of Marcos, loss of popularity and credibility could bring him down./PN
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[av_heading tag=’h3′ padding=’10’ heading=’Durogista gintiro sang Pulis’ color=” style=’blockquote modern-quote’ custom_font=” size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ custom_class=”]
Ni Ime Sornito
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Syudad sang ILOILO – Patay ang isa sa duha ka high-value targets sa pagduso sang ilegal nga droga kag subjects sa warrant of arrest para sa kaso nga two counts of murder sa operasyon sang Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 6 sa Barangay Ticud, La Paz alas-3:34 sang hapon kahapon. Gindeklarar nga dead-on-arrival sa West Visayas Medical Center si Aslani Ansari alyas Boy nga nakaagom sang pilas sa lawas. Na-aresto naman ang upod sini nga si Alex Mapandi alyas Angari/Agie, 31. Sandig sa report halin kay Senior Supt. Marlon Tayaba, hepe sang CIDG-6, upod ang mga katapo sang Special Weapons And Tactics kag Iloilo City Police Office, plano nila nga i-serbe ang warrant of arrest para sa kaso nga two counts of murder kontra sa duha sang nagluntad ang insidente. Ginapasuni nga nagbatu si Ansari paagi sa pagtiro sa isa sa mga katapo sang CIDG-6 rason nga na-puersa ang mga otoridad nga magbalos kabangdanan sang iya kamatayon. Narekober naman sa paghinakop sang duha ang duha ka mga pusil kag pila ka plastic sachets sang ginapatihan shabu. Sa interbyu naman sang mga katapo sang media kay Senior Insp. Rey Sumagaysay, hepe sang La Paz PNP, sanday Ansari kag Mapandi ang ginatudlo mga suspek sa pagpatay paagi sa pagsunog sa isa ka Muslim nga nasapwan nga naputos sa plastic sa circumferential road sa Brgy. Balabago, Jaro sang tinalikdan nga bulan./H
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