the #DuterteSerye
The filing of the Certificate of Candidacies (COCs) for the 2016 Philippine Elections just finished late afternoon today. As of the moment, 130 of those who filed are vying for presidency, but of these 130, Rody Duterte of Davao City is not among them. People, or should I say his supporters, have been insisting since day 1 that he will indeed run as president and that, the Filipino nation should be patient in waiting for him to file his COC. Thus, in following this news, netizens have dubbed this developing story as #DuterteSerye, having patterned it in the noontime show Eat Bulaga's KalyeSerye.
Earlier today, sources claimed that Sara Duterte, the daughter of Rody Duterte, has filed her COC for mayoralty and that Rody Duterte was picked up by a private jet to be brought to Manila. The Filipino nation has been waiting for his arrival, all curious of what he is about to do -- finally file a COC for presidency or face his supporters once and for all and tell them that a "No is a No." Hours and hours passed, no private jet has arrived and obviously, no Duterte has arrived.
Later today, he had a press con on all these issues circulating saying that his daughter did not file any COC to go against him in their city and that he is a man with a Word of Honor -- which I admire of him, by the way. He reiterated that since day 1, since the day people urged him to run as president, he already said he won't and that he has no interest in running. He claimed that never in his wildest dreams did he wish to be a president and thus, filed a COC to be reelected as Davao City mayor. However, as COC filing comes, people still hoped and hoped and hoped....obviously, for nothing -- napaasa ang Masang Pilipino, sakit umasa no?
With all these, I just realized how demanding his supporters have been to him. They should have respected his decision once and for all. If he decided to run, his supporters could rejoice but if not, they should also know how to respect his decision. I understand his sentiment that he did not want to owe anything to anyone. Lately, a lot of rich people have been encouraging him and promised to fund his candidacy and assist him all the way. Look for example what has been PNoy's situation up today. I have nothing against PNoy, seriously, but I think that he is a good president. However, the people around him are not good for him, not healthy at all. I'm not saying all, but at least a lot of them. These people encouraged him to run in 2010 and helped him all throughout his campaign. Now that he is serving his term as the president, these people who helped him demand things from him which puts him in a tough position -- the Purisima and Petilla controversies, i.e. I understand that putting all these in the context of Duterte running for president, this just might happen all over again. I know that PNoy and Duterte have different personalities, and perhaps, Duterte is a more firm person, but again, having to owe someone something will put him in a tough position if ever he wins as president.
Imagine if he runs for president because the people forced him and not because he wholeheartedly wants to, it will be as flawless as people think. It's always better to serve when no one is pressuring you and in this case, the people are pressuring him. The essence, the value of service by him to the Filipino nation would not be the same as how we want it to be, because it was forced upon him; it wasn't his initiation at all.
I just want to ask a simple question, a lot of people want him to be the next president, but how sure are we that we are ready for his kind of well-disciplined and firm leadership when we keep reiterating the democratic government of ours, when we could not even follow simple traffic rules and simple law, when we still give "under-the-table" payments to lawmakers. My point is, we should first learn discipline on our own? How do we even improve when we can't even respect a simple decision, right? Otherwise despite the existence of this type of leadership, it might still not work for our country.
I hope we cut Duterte some slack for his decision. He has the right to say no so we should respect that. This country deserves so much better, I know, but maybe this betterment is not meant to be brought by Duterte himself. Maybe, this betterment could be brought by a collective effort of the Filipino nation.
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