King of Durian Kingdom

I don’t know about you, but after his interview on ANC last Monday, and repeatedly aired since then, I have nothing but contempt for Davao City Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, as an official of government, as a father, and as a person.

I can see how Duterte would stand by his daughter as a father, and as his mayor, being the vice mayor. He can defend her to high heavens in private. But when you are before the public you do not lose sight of your social and civil obligations by defending what is patently wrong.

Before Duterte answered any questions from Ces Orena Drilon and Tony Velasquez, who were clearly very deferential to or very scared of him, the Davao City vice mayor laid down what he called the predicates to the case. And frankly, they were all perfectly understood and accepted.

Duterte, however, missed the whole point of the whole mess. The problem is not about the predicates — it being the duty of the mayor to preserve order, etc etc — but how his daughter lost her cool when it was precisely during crisis situations that a leader must keep her cool.

Duterte cannot just casually say there is no problem because his daughter has already gone on leave and would accept the consequences of her actions. That is not the kind of message you try to impress and inspire the public with.

I know many secretly cheered the summary executions of troublemakers in his city out of frustration in the failure of authorities to get them by legal means. The methods in fact were so popular that Cebu City, where Christianity was born in the Philippines, once adopted them.

But strong-arm methods are only good on the sly. You do not parade them in public. Even Duterte himself denied having anything to do with the illegal methods employed to eliminate the troublemakers in his city while he was the mayor.

But now that his daughter is in trouble, Duterte has come out strongly in public as his real self, forgetting that whether he is a government official or a private person, it is still the obligation of every citizen to set a good example whenever he can.

Duterte’s daughter Sara is the Davao mayor. She got into trouble last week when a court sheriff, executing the orders of the court, effected a demolition of squatter colonies despite a plea by the mayor to stay the execution for two hours.

Sara wanted to buy time so as to be at the scene. That was reasonable enough. But as things turned out, the sheriff, Abe Andres, had the demolition proceeded without her presence. So as what usually happens during demolitions, violence ensued.

Understandably, Sara was livid with indignation when she arrived. Like an angry god, she ordered everybody to stand down, and everybody did. She berated everyone. Then she called for Andres, and then beat him up right before the rolling cameras.

Video footages of the incident have since gone viral, prompting government to rattle up the entire machinery, cranking up investigations here and investigations there, all of which I have no great faith will amount to anything much.

There are calls for Sara to be suspended or fired. There is even a call for her to be disbarred, she being a lawyer. But the thing I see most likely happening is that it is her burly bodyguards, who manhandled Andres instead of whisking him to safety, who will get the axe.

But never mind Sara because she is now being dealt with. My problem is with Duterte, who thinks he can do anything with impunity. Asked by ANC what would happen if somebody punches him, Duterte told the nation: “I will shoot him.”