The non-fight

To no one’s surprise, there was no slapping match or fistfight or gun duel between rivals Rodrigo Duterte and Mar Roxas. Who would make the first move for a handshake is still uncertain, but they’ll probably make the friendly gesture at the same time if they run into each other.

The jury’s still out on who won in the word war. Duterte rose to prominence on his “Dirty Rody” reputation so the readiness to engage in a brawl was merely in keeping with his image. But his opponents think it gave those outside Davao City who know little about the mayor a good look at the negative aspects of this man who wants to be president.

The exchange also gave Roxas some pluses and minuses. Some quarters think the word war gave him a chance to shed some of his image as an indecisive wimp. On the other hand, others think he walked into Duterte’s provocation and came off like a juvenile.

Duterte also managed to raise valid questions about Roxas’ academic credentials. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania is not necessarily a graduate of its Wharton School of Economics, Duterte correctly pointed out. Where’s the diploma? Where’s the graduation photo with mom? Two congressmen reportedly gave Duterte pointers on how to needle Roxas on this issue.

Perhaps Roxas merely attended Wharton, Duterte said, but did not graduate, in which case he will still be listed as a Wharton alumnus. That’s the case with billionaire Donald Trump, the pugnacious Republican presidential contender to whom Duterte is being compared these days.But for Roxas to claim to be a Wharton graduate would be dishonesty, which is not in keeping with the tuwid na daan or straight path that Roxas professes to champion. The bar for honesty is set higher for the candidate of daang matuwid.

The proper response from a gentleman graduate of Wharton, according to the peanut gallery, is to simply present the Wharton certificate of graduation. Where is it? The other day a member of Roxas’ camp whispered that it must be buried in a baul or chest somewhere. Why would a certificate of graduation from an Ivy League school be stashed away for no one to see?

If Roxas merely attended Wharton, a better stance, from a candidate with nothing to hide, is to announce from the start that he didn’t finish a course in the elite school. That was the case with Joseph Estrada, who even burnished his “Erap para sa mahirap” or pro-poor credentials by bragging that he was a college dropout.

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Taking off from the academics controversy, Duterte even managed to earn some masa brownie points by proposing to abolish Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus from the regular high school curriculum and to replace them with business math.

Having nearly flunked all my high school math subjects, and failing to find any practical applications throughout my life for whatever I managed to learn, I fully agree with Duterte, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus can be elective subjects. Many Pinoys, myself included even in my old age, could instead use training in math for business and entrepreneurship.

A colleague from Negros Oriental told me that in their schools, math subjects were in fact taught using practical applications such as running a business so they understood their lessons.

Maybe our math teachers need a reorientation to make the subject sexy and easily comprehensible even to the numbers-challenged like Duterte. But for now he’s got the votes of the legions of math haters.

He’s got the votes of even more, if the surveys are accurate. And it looks like he will be allowed to run. Yesterday Duterte got one hurdle out of the way in his presidential bid, after the full Commission on Elections, voting 6-1, accepted his substitution as presidential candidate for a man who filed a certificate to run only for mayor.

Duterte must still hurdle another petition also questioning his substitution as standard-bearer of the PDP-Laban for the May 2016 race. It should have been consolidated with the other petition, if only to speed up the final resolution. Any Comelec ruling on his case is expected to be elevated to the Supreme Court. But at least his name is likely to be included in the ballot.

Since announcing belatedly his decision to seek the nation’s highest post, Duterte has stressed that he wouldn’t lose sleep if he would be disqualified over the questions raised about his candidacy.

Critics have slammed him for this, saying a person aspiring for the nation’s highest post must want it badly enough so he or she can have a vision and solid plans for what the candidate intends to accomplish in case of victory.

Pinoy voters, however, seem to like reluctant candidates, like Noynoy Aquino in 2010 and his mother Corazon during the 1986 snap election against Ferdinand Marcos.

In case Duterte is disqualified over his party affiliation, he is expected to openly support another presidential candidate. It won’t be Sen. Grace Poe, whose candidacy prompted Duterte (he said) to run against her. It certainly won’t be Roxas, even if he and the Davao mayor kiss and make up; too much bad blood has been generated.

A news report yesterday said if disqualified, Duterte would back Vice President Jejomar Binay. If this were a boxing match, that would translate into substantial points against Roxas.