How to survive Dutertespeak

By Ermin Garcia Jr.

HERE’S a friendly and brotherly advice to Duterte’s loyal supporters who are constantly perplexed, baffled and embarrassed by their idol’s off-the-cuff statements coming out of left field, and to his yellow loyal haters who are constantly frothing in the mouth, their blood pressures shooting up to 190/ 100 each time DU30 appears and sounds stupid to them!

Yes, there is a way to survive Dutertespeak!

To the loyalists:

1. Just remember he didn’t promise to be a statesman president. In fact, he referred to himself as “Mayor of the Philippines.”
2. Understand the context of his statements: It’s either sarcastic or a compartmentalized response intended for a particular audience or sector, i.e., religious, military, police, informal settlers, oligarchs, corrupt police or politicians, drug lords or gambling lords, LGBT, farmers, lawyers, judges, boy scouts, feminists, etc… Know that his statement is not always for general consumption but for an intended or target audience. In other words, you are not necessarily in his mind but others when he speaks.
3. Allow him 3-5 days to further explain himself and you will soon feel justified supporting his confusing statements.

So, why worry?

To the haters:

1. Just remember that what you see is what you get. He is not going to change for your sake at anytime.
2.  He will likely be shooting his mouth 3x weekly.
3. There will always be an explanation from his allies within 3 days,

So, why bother?

So for your good health, simply choose to be happy and let Dutertespeak be!

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TERMS OF LAND DONATION. There can be no plausible reason to reject the land donation of Kerwin Fernandez, younger brother of Mayor Belen Fernandez, being proposed to be used to as site for the planned city’s government center.

And I believe his conditions for the donation are fair enough.

However, the city council should seek to clarify some issues in relation to the conditions set by Kerwin in view of the fact that there are no funds with which to construct the planned building within 12 months.

1. Will the mere filling of the donated fishponds within one year of the acceptance be construed to mean that the construction of the planned government center has started, and therefore, already deemed as compliance with the donor’s terms?
2.  If not deemed as compliance with the terms of donation, and the donated land has to be returned, will the donor repay the city for the costs of the landfill?
3. If deemed complied with, will the donor still completely waive his right to demand the return even if a future administration decides to postpone completion or completely abandon a partially finished government center?
4. Will the land required for the right of way being demanded by the city government be included in the donated 1.2 hectares of land, or will it be the subject of a separate lease arrangement?

Just wondering if these details have been settled.

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ORDER IN CITY STREETS. Still in Dagupan City, the improvement in the flow of traffic in the city is beginning to be noticed by motorists. Credit should go to the hardworking POSO enforcers.

In fact, I chanced upon one jeepney (Calasiao-Dagupan route) being issued a traffic violation ticket by a lady POSO enforcer along the A.B. Fernandez Ave.  mid morning of Friday. Violation? The pasaway jeepney driver dared to load and unload passengers on approaching Quintos Bridge. The lady POSO would not budge to the palusot pleas of the erring driver!

I wonder if that had to do with the POSO enforcer being a woman or is because we have a highly motivated POSO team? Whatever, but I am truly impressed.

But I wonder how her compatriots are faring in other areas of assignment!

Moving on, it’s time for the city government to regulate parking in the city’s business district.

It’s bad enough that parking is limited to one side of the streets yet a lot of space are wasted by casually parked tricycles and cars, some parked semi-diagonally, some parallel to the sidewalk, some leaving two-meters space between vehicles, and there are the empty reserved parking spaces for ‘special friends of the city hall’ (kuno).

Then I also wonder who’s in charge of the order in our sidewalks. Is it the POSO or the barangay councils?

I have not heard Mayor Belen suspend her order to restore the occupied sidewalks controlled by vendors and establishments to the pedestrians.

A cursory walking inspection around the business district (A.B. Fernandez Ave., (East and West), Perez Blvd., Rizal St.  Rivera St. Fernandez St., Arellano St., M.H. del Pilar St., Nable St., Herero St., Burgos St., Zamora St.) will tell you that pedestrians continue to be at risk because they are still shut out of the sidewalks.

Just as there are IRR (implementing rules and regulations) for laws, there really are no uniform guidelines governing use of the city’s sidewalks. For instance: Can motorcyles and bicycles be allowed to park on the sidewalks? Can establishments be allowed to use part of sidewalks as extension of their operations? What type of ambulant vendors are allowed to occupy sidewalks? Should permits be issued to be able to occupy any part of the sidewalk? By whom? Etc. etc.

Whatever but the city’s sidewalks already need official attention to make Dagupan as truly a business friendly city.

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TERRORISM IS HERE. The worst thing that can happen to the province is for our local governments to feel insulated from the violence and martial law in Mindanao.

In this day and age, terrorism knows no boundaries. We are seeing Islamic extremists rearing their ugly heads even in Scandinavian countries where no religious discrimination and exploitation are noted.

All provinces in Luzon are vulnerable. The recipe for homegrown terrorism to expand is found in Luzon. It hosts all major national and international media, and the most number of regional media in the country.

The central government is in Luzon. Vital power and water resources are in Luzon.  

I cannot overemphasize the need for our local governments to institute measures to counter terrorism. The impact of the consequences of a terrorist attack whether there are few, many or no injuries is the same. Terror is terror.

Our local governments must begin to think, feel and act like Marawi City is just another town in Pangasinan.

Let’s face it, whether we like it or not, we need to change the way we live as a community from hereon. 

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