Why Duterte won

By Al S. Mendoza

 

RODRIGO Duterte won because people want change.  As simple as that.

People are fed up with trapos (traditional politicians).

Trapos promise everything, including the moon and the stars, if only to win votes.

Trapos had been doing that for the longest time.

Gullible that we are, we easily believed then; we still do today.

Isn’t a sucker born every minute?

But in the run-up to the May 9 elections, haven’t you noticed something different?

Not anymore did we fall prey to old school politics:  Lies, lies, lies.

Call it weirdly queer but Duterte’s stumping style sided with sheer unorthodox mode.

Duterte wasn’t run-of-the-mill.  His campaign tack was exactly the opposite of his rivals’.

In fact, he wasn’t campaigning at all in his sortes; he was just telling stories and—hold your breadth—cussing and cursing even.

People loved it because they identified with Duterte.

People adored it because Duterte’s delectable menu was brand new.

People laughed because Duterte decorated his persona with down-to-earth jabs.

Before Duterte, there was nothing.

Nothing of the sort that made a presidentiable talking very unpresidentiable in public.

Nothing of the sort that pictured a presidentiable as lowly as the neighborhood thug.

Nothing of the sort that thrust a presidentiable into the national consciousness as someone virtually coming from the dregs of society.

Duterte even cursed Pope Francis and he got away with it?

No, the people actually did not love him for that.

Oh, how they hated him for that.

But then, after having sprayed him with venom, the people would quickly forgive him, re-embracing him back like a long, lost son—a la the biblical prodigal son.  He was their very own—bitch.

“He is not God, after all,” said former Sen. Nene Pimentel of Duterte’s papal glitch.  “Like all of us, he is not perfect.”

Again, Duterte’s four foes practically exhibited rehashed campaign strategies.

They talked about how they would alleviate poverty, about how they would provide more jobs, about how they would put more food on the table, and about how our workers and farmers would have better lives under their respective administrations.

In short, Duterte’s four foes had latched on that same tired, old campaign line:  Make the poor live comfortably once their bet got to Malacanang.

Not Duterte.

Have you not noticed?

Duterte never talked about giving the poor a better life once he got elected.

All he said was he would have criminals killed and illegal drug trading stopped.

People loved it.

When the ambassadors of Australia and the US threatened to cut ties with us, Duterte quickly called the bluff.

People cheered.  For the first time, they were seeing a presidentiable who has got balls to face the high and the mighty.

A reluctant candidate from the very start, Duterte has kept true to his mantra.

He loved to open his diskurso atop the entablado—as keenly observed by his friend Benny Gopez—with this shocking salvo:  “If you do not want me as your president, then please, do not vote for me.”

Where in the world can you find a political animal saying such shitty thing?

If Duterte would proceed to officially become the next president of the republic by June 30, be not surprised.

Funny, but he earned it without really trying.

God must really be a partisan.

(For your comments and reactions, please email to: punch.sunday@gmail.com)

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