"Make way for Duterte!"
(Ramblings after people preparing for the "Punisher" as the country's Leader
And after seeing criticisms that still surrounds him)
"In human life, a leader must emerge who can win others with his faith and make them happy. That is where leadership comes from. The same is true of nations. A nation and a race are called to make the others happy. One nation must rise above the others, and raise the others as well."
At first, this writer is ought to say that the quote stated in this post are the words saidth by the controversial Robert Ley of the German Labour Front of the Nazi party, and this person perhaps somehow agrees to the statement in which a nation whose people born as equals in the eyes of law needs a first amongst them as its guide in this realistic arena called struggle.
That somehow perhaps made people chose to vote for a leader named Rodrigo Duterte.
Known for his cursing, womanising, and even demanding for reinstating death penalty for the corruptors be it druglords or self-gratifying bureaucrats, Duterte also did some welfare for his needy constituents as he promised housing for the poor or even higher wages for the employees, what more of ending contractualisation for the workers or the desire to make peace with the Left by promising to release political prisoners.
Obviously, these smacks of populism as Duterte tried to appease people from all walks of life, particularly the poorest majority whom he tried himself to equate with. Oligarchs may find themselves tremble in fear if not trying to adjust themselves to his vision as the helmsman of the state. Critics speaks about him more than everyone else, ranging from his cursing to dancing with the Left, or perhaps being different from the past heads of state that used to be subservient to the interests of a particular class or gentry such as the oligarchs and its apologetics.
Sorry to say that as Duterte's populism created a series of mixed reactions. Even the Left, despite supporting some of Duterte's promises does not translate to supporting the head of state himself knowing that he belonged to a rotten order same as the oligarchs, landlords, and compradores ruling this nation after or even before 1946; but despite criticism one would critically say that Duterte may have concerned the leaders of the world especially those of United States and China thinking that his promises has moved his people. Obama or Xi Jinping may have nervously asked "What is this Duterte gonna do after Aquino?" after seeing the "Punisher" and his moves, be it as pragmatic as Lee Kwan Yew or as Hardcore as Soekarno with his promise of a non-aligned society.
If one looks back on history, Duterte may have been packaged as a messiah whose oath was redemption: Be it like Dagohoy, Bonifacio, Magsaysay, or even Marcos whose statements and populism emphasises the "poor" as in his "Rebellion of the Poor." And like their followers, people from all walks of life, rich or poor alike, wanted a "messiah" whose goal is redeeming the nation from half-baked promises and eternal miseries, of redistributing justice and development to its constituents. Quite interesting though that as the country's history involved some mysticism, of taking the idea of a "New Jerusalem" seriously in a "Third World" country, maybe the people who elected Duterte thinks that he's more than just elected, but rather "ordained" because of what they've think as capable than those whom they consistently disagreed with such as Mar Roxas and his supporters.
Anyways, if those who remained under Aquino's side under the Liberal Party or its rabid supporters and allies continues to oppose, then Duterte's supporters may afford to say that "it is fine with them" the way people, in seeing comments of these two warring supporters in social media sites may have described it as a "battlefield" of sorts, not knowing that these so-called supporters failed to face the real enemy such as the system whose order meant repression if not misery. Even the Church couldn't escape from Duterte's criticism as the former afforded to criticise Duterte and his policies, but to think that after years of half-baked promises and nonsense rhetorics, that even the Church also afforded to criticise, will people believe in the system's sheer stupidity? Maybe these God-fearing people who rather voted for the man who's willing to be sent to hell, be it critical or fanatical, supported him thinking that he've "represented the truth" rather than a person who consoles them with hopes as any other politico that most of them failed to; that in him they think that they want to make the society reclaim dignity, to hold high the concept of service to one's fellowmen as idealised in the past, that to accept that "life is struggle" as contrary to those who remained contented in their apathies, that to remold a nation that is, rooted in courage and "manliness" (sorry for the term) the way they've voted that being with those attributes stated.
Furthermore, there are no more words to say except that Duterte's moves are populistic as any other charismatic leader, but again, people continues to demand social change that is more than what Duterte's statement that "Change is Coming" in the form of the leader himself. Good it may be that some of Duterte's policies be beneficial for the well-being of its constituents, but as long as rotten system prevails with all its corruption and repression, it will always be a duty for the people to assert the need for that rotten system's dismantlement and to create a society that is just.