General Admission
Vintage Duterte wrecks Roxas
By Al S. Mendoza
SLAPFEST first. Fistfight second. Gun duel third.
Those were the recent headline-huggers.
But to be sure, none of that had happened.
Main characters were Digong Duterte and Mar Roxas.
Duterte, the derring-do Davao City mayor running for president in 2016, had threatened to slap Roxas in the heat of their debate over Roxas’s Wharton diploma.
Roxas, the presidential bet from Capiz, countered he’d rather that he engages Duterte to a slugfest as “a slapfest is for women only.”
Duterte had the last say, challenging Roxas to a “gun duel.”
While the word war was on, the country watched delighted and unbelievably joyous.
But, of course, nothing came out of it.
It was all for show.
But who emerged the winner?
Duterte, of course.
He had a fighting stance that was very natural of him.
Digong has always been known to be thuggish, whose tough-guy image is his second nature.
On the contrary, Roxas appeared piqued—reacting in a manner like he has lost his bearings.
Pictured as a serious, an always-formal fellow, and a prim and proper dude at all times, Roxas, in letting his hair down, threw away a chance at winning “pogi points.”
Instead of being diplomatic, unloading words of wisdom a la statesmanlike, he fell for Duterte’s kanto-boy caper.
In short, Roxas fell into a booby trap.
When suddenly, Roxas was waxing warrior-like, Duterte was loudly laughing from the inside.
As Roxas was biting the bait, one could almost hear Duterte saying, “Come to my parlor.”
It was vintage Duterte the nation saw.
It was a Roxas wreck the nation saw.
Duterte should be the last person you would want to tangle with—verbally or otherwise.
When Justice Secretary De Lima badmouthed Duterte on human rights issues, the Davao City mayor shot back at her: “Look who’s talking. De Lima can’t even fix the mess of fashionable living quarters of high-profile inmates in Muntinglupa and she wants to dip her fingers into my city.”
When vice presidential candidate Leni Robredo said she doesn’t like Duterte’s campaign style, Duterte retorted: “We are but even now because I don’t like her, too.”
When some jerk insisted Duterte had hurt Pope Francis, Duterte said, “If our Pope would want me to quit the presidential race, I will do so immediately.”
When some Jesuits hit Duterte, the Mayor said, “If they won’t stop, I will expose the sexual abuses of Ateneo priests when I was studying at Ateneo de Davao.”
They stopped.
With a landslide 6-1 win at the Comelec on Thursday declaring him eligible to run for president in May, the Duterte juggernaut is in full steam.
Seemingly, no one can knock down Duterte now, not even Manny Pacquiao.
(For your comments and reactions, please email to: punch.sunday@gmail.com)
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