"Refusing to Stand down"

"Refusing to stand down"

Notes on Philippines' President Duterte's harsh remarks on U.S.'s Obama
And how RP's Senator Richard Gordon "agrees" to his statement

""Equals, not 'first amongst equals'." These are the words Senator Richard Gordon stated on the rant brought by President Duterte against US President Obama. Quite personal if not too straight to the point for a leader who supposed to be acting diplomatically, however, it is most likely an effect of having a people preferring a tough man of action whose incorrectness speaks louder as his policies intended, especially over a country that is marred by rampant crime if not poverty.

But for yours truly, the statement brought upon by Duterte, may smacks of a "real talk" as any other common person (that perhaps a province-bred personality finds it better to say that way). But despite having maninstream media focused too much on the cussing (be it alleged or not), President Duterte rather insisted a country that is, sovereign and not of a neocolony as his predecessors tolerated as such, especially through policies in which creates hindrance rather than promotes a nation's growth be it political as well as economic ever since 1946 and still in its continuing past. He even recalls the atrocities left by the Americans in case of Bud Dajo that murdered Moro fighters and their families, reminiscent of Wounded Knee.

And perhaps Gordon is right that despite encouraging the "Politically Incorrect President" to moderate his statements if not to act diplomatically, he tells people that they "must learn to adjust that you are looking at a different individual -- a rough, straight talking person who delivers a right down the throat message." After all, how come people afforded to listen to Churchill, to Gadaffi, to Khomeini, or even Hitler and its offensive remarks? They do speak incorrectly as what Duterte do. Even Roosevelt does so, or even Quezon and Antonio Luna says "Puñeta" for a remark!

Besides that, regardless of the statement's inconvenience due to its "harshness", it seemed to be a first time for a head of state that he asserted a nation's independence. "I am a president of a sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony. I do not have any master except the Filipino people." as what he said.

But again, media personages rather posts his cussing over U.S's own Obama as a "Son of a Bitch" if not sarcastically asking why Obama has to lecture him on "human rights"?

But again, as decades gone by, despite extorting more efforts to build a better nation, having a country tied to outside interests stunts, if not hinders a country's growth, if not reducing the ideas and aspirations of the past into mere rhetorical statements in sheets of paper. In fact, attempts for industrialisation, maximising production, of emphasising a patriotic and scientific education and culture are all but "empty words" for a system that is contented to have a country be occidentified as in the past, all thanks to neoliberalism, globalisation, and emphasis on Anglo-Americanisation on Filipino way of life, particularly culture.

And since Duterte's inconvenient statement is been tempered with Gordon's diplomatic-like remark, then may as well put all the existing policies into question, and at the same time start a Filipino first policy. It may sound too idealistic or even desperately hopeless case compared to the usual reliance on outside alliances, but remember, focus more on the homeland the way one afford to say "change starts from the self."

Hope that people agrees on how Duterte stated. Maybe it sounds incorrect but despite recognising how the United States provided modernity in this archipelago, and how people appreciated that country's aid and its role, among other outside factors, in the development of a developing country's economy, of seeing it as "aid by a friendly people", "aid without strings attached", and possibly "even without political conditions" (that is possibly not), hope that this so-called "Pearl of the Orient" realise that there is a chance to stand on its own no matter how year it is, of forging, tilling, building a better nation on its own as means to recover a nation's almost lost dignity.