Why Duterte won’t suffer Trump’s fate

“A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.”

—James Freeman Clarke

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

THE answer is very obvious: President Rodrigo R. Duterte can’t run for reelection under the constitution. 

Elected in 2016, he’ll have to vacate Malacanang in 2022 (unless, of course, “unforeseen” events will interfere). 

Philippine presidents have fixed six-year terms while U.S. presidents govern for four years and can seek a reelection for another four years.

Could Mr. Duterte, who allegedly enjoyed a 91 percent public approval in the most recent survey, suffer Mr. Trump’s fate if he was allowed to run for reelection?

It depends. 

The No. 1 reason put forward by election experts in America why 74-year-old Trump was trounced by 78-year-old President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. was his poor handling of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

If COVID-19 was a central issue in the Philippines and Mr. Duterte played it down or refused to acknowledge it wreaked havoc on the lives of the Filipinos (or, like Mr. Trump, denied science, rejected the suggestions of health authorities and refused to wear a mask), he might be “fired” (as Mr. Trump’s nemesis would always say after the November 3 election) by the Filipino voters assuming he could or was running for reelection.

 

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As of this writing, there were 12,306,023 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States, per the most recent data from health officials. (Or 504,004 more than November 20 morning.)

There were 257,692 deaths in the United States from the virus so far. (Or 4,059 more than November 20 morning.)

The number of coronavirus tests that have been administered in the United States so far, according to researchers at The COVID Tracking Project was 179.34 million as of this writing.

Mr. Biden’s popular-vote lead over Mr. Trump stands at four percentage points, 51 percent to 47 percent—and it’s only going to grow once more of New York’s votes (finally) get counted, according to the NBC news.

This would give Mr. Biden the second-largest popular vote margin out of the 21st century’s six presidential elections, with only former President Barack Obama’s seven-point win in 2008 being greater, according to NBC news analysts Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Carrie Dann and Melissa Holzberg.

 

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When it comes to the Electoral College, the tally stands at Mr. Biden 306, Trump 232–which happens to be the exact same split as Mr. Trump’s 2016 win versus former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (but in reverse). 

And Mr. Trump referred to that as a “massive landslide victory.”

Mr. Biden’s ahead by 154,000 votes in Michigan (greater than Mr. Trump’s 10,000-vote winning margin there in 2016).

The President-elect is ahead by 81,000 votes in Pennsylvania (nearly twice Mr. Trump’s 44,000-vote win there four years ago).

And Mr. Biden is ahead by more than 20,000 votes in Wisconsin (almost the same as Mr. Trump’s 23,000-vote victory there in 2016).

On top of those leads, Mr. Biden also narrowly flipped the traditionally GOP-leanings states of Arizona and Georgia.

The 2020 presidential race reportedly looked close the 12 hours after the first polling places closed on Election Night.

As of this writing Mr. Biden’s lead in the popular vote was 6,026,117.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, was a former editor of two dailies in Iloilo, Philippines)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Duterte’s UN speech

“The purpose of the United Nations should be to protect the essential sovereignty of nations, large and small.”

—Nikita Khrushchev

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WE are glad that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has agreed to deliver his speech in the United Nations (UN) despite lambasting the U.N. in the past.

In a world turned upside down, as emphasized by United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres during his speech in a largely empty General Assembly Hall here in New York City, Duterte finally delivered his pre-recorded message played during the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly Sept. 22, 2020, at UN headquarters. 

The prerecorded video is the meeting's format this year because of the pandemic.

The U.N.'s first virtual meeting of world leaders started Tuesday (September 22) with pre-recorded speeches from some of the planet's biggest powers, kept at home by the coronavirus pandemic that will likely be a dominant theme at their video gathering this year.

Mr. Guterres characterized the pandemic from the podium as “not only a wake-up call” but “a dress rehearsal” for challenges to come. 

“In an interconnected world, it is high time to recognize a simple truth: solidarity is self-interest.  If we fail to grasp that fact, everyone loses”, he said, delivering his annual report on the work of the Organization.   

 

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As the sometimes aggressive critic of the U.N. addressed its annual gathering of world leaders for the first time, Mr. Duterte defended his drug crackdown, dismissed criticism from human rights advocates and underscored his country's claims in the South China Sea.

The often brash-talking former mayor of Davao City struck a somewhat conciliatory tone about the organization he has often criticized and at times threatened to leave with the coronavirus taking a human and economic toll on the Filipinos.

“The Philippines values the role that the United Nations plays in its fight against the pandemic,” Duterte said.

Mr. Duterre welcomed the U.N.'s launch of a relief fund and called on the international community to make sure potential vaccines are accessible to all.

He also spotlighted Filipino health care workers' contribution to the virus fight at home and around the globe.

Known for his cuss words and badmouthing his critics, Mr. Duterte often lashes out at what he decries as international meddling in Philippine domestic affairs even as Western governments and human rights groups see it as expressing justifiable alarm about an anti-drug crusade that has left more than 5,700 mostly poor suspects dead.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in June that the Philippines' "campaign against illegal drugs is being carried out without due regard for the rule of law, due process and the human rights of people who may be using or selling drugs."

 

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Bachelet’s office called on the government to end all violence targeting suspected drug offenders.

He has denied authorizing extrajudicial killings but has repeatedly and openly threatened drug dealers with death. 

Duterte publicly ordered the country's top customs official to shoot and kill drug smugglers just this month.

The International Criminal Court opened a preliminary probe in February 2018 into complaints about the killings; Duterte's government responded by withdrawing from the court.

“The Philippines will continue to protect the human rights of its people, especially from the scourge of illegal drugs, criminality and terrorism,”

Duterte told the assembly, complaining that “interest groups have weaponized human rights” to discredit his government.

He expressed openness to “constructive engagement" with the U.N., but only if there is “objectivity, noninterference, nonselectivity and genuine dialogue.”

The president also pointed to the South China Sea, where Beijing's sweeping territorial claims have set off disputes with several neighboring countries and the United States.

“We firmly reject attempts to undermine” a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated most of China’s claims, Mr. Duterte said. 

China refused to participate in the arbitration by a U.N.-backed tribunal, dismissed the ruling as a “sham” and continues to defy it.

Mr. Duterte lamented on a larger scale that tensions among major powers are intensifying.

“When elephants fight, it is the grass that gets trampled flat,” he said, imploring countries with interests in the South China Sea and other global flashpoints: “If we cannot be friends as yet, then in God’s name, let us not hate each other too much.”

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two dailies in Iloilo)

 

 

 

Rodrigo Duterte no respect for Ilonggos in Bacolod

"There is no life to be found in violence. Every act of violence brings us closer to death. Whether it's the mundane violence we do to our bodies by overeating toxic food or drink or the extreme violence of child abuse, domestic warfare, life-threatening poverty, addiction, or state terrorism."
--Bell Hooks

By Alex P. Vidal

RODRIGO Roa Duterte may have abused his presidency for ordering his police "berdugo", Jovie Espenido, to "kill everybody" in Bacolod City.
If you are a parent, a wife, a husband, a priest, a journalist, a tambay, a teacher, an activist, a vendor and you live in Bacolod City, you will surely shake in your shirts.
Any civilian can be killed either on suspicion of involvement in illegal drugs, or as a "collateral damage" when the Duterte-inspired lawmen hunt down their "persons of interest."
Any Juan, Pedro, Toto and Inday can be murdered because they are "nanlaban" or "nag bato" (resisted and fought the police) when "arrested".
We all know what happened to the more than 5,000 alleged victims of the extra-judicial killings (EJK) ever since the Duterte administration waged a bloody rampage versus illegal drugs.

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With his statement, a pre-Halloween dagger, Duterte probably thinks people in the "City of Smile" are worse than animals.
He is promoting and sponsoring violence by egging an excited and over-rated chief law enforcer to disregard the due process, the basic essence of democracy, and blatantly commit a human rights violation.
The president has no regard for the human life.
He has no respect for the Ilonggos in Bacolod City who had accorded him a warm welcome on several occasions.
Duterte's sweeping and irresponsible order on Espenido may be misinterpreted by trigger-happy maniacs who wear police uniforms.
He thinks the only solution to the problem on illegal drugs is to kill both the pusher and the user, to brutally wage terror in a civilian community.
Duterte has assigned Espenido, a police lieutenant colonel, to the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) as deputy with a main purpose of running after illegal drug traffickers in the city which he described as "badly hit" by illegal drugs.
"Bacolod City is badly hit now and I placed Espenido there because he is the only police official feared the most," Duterte said recently.
"And I told him to go there and you are free to kill everybody. 'Go, start killing them."

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We are puzzled why until now no public official or organization in Bacolod City has criticized Mr. Duterte's dangerous statement.
No one from the City Council has stood up in the rostrum to at least remind the president that Bacolod is a peaceful city and any violent enforcement of the law will not be tolerated by peace-loving Bacolodnons.
If Mayor Bing Leonardia can't criticize his friend, President Duterte, for his unpalatable remarks, the opposition or anyone in the local government who believes in decency and the rule of law should initiate a discourse or debate that the President should rectify his mistake soon and tell the public he had no intention of sowing terror in Bacolod City.
Bacolodnons should unite and chide the President, and demand from him to remind Espenido or any police personnel for that matter to respect the rule of law and value the fundamental human rights of any civilian.
There should be no more bloodbaths. No more hubris when implementing the law. No ifs. No buts.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

A wife to die for

“I love being my husband's wife.”
--Julianna Margulies

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- I haven’t met Mrs. Victoria “Marivic” Griengo-Mabilog in person, but based on what I have heard in the news about her these past years, I think she is the kind of wife any husband will die for unconditionally.
Of all the elected public officials in the Philippines humiliated by President Rodrigo R. Duterte in his dubious “narco list”, only former Iloilo City mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog got a blistering open and all-out support from a wife, so far.
Mrs. Mabilog, who can swear to any ghost in heaven that her husband is innocent, had the guts to call the president a “liar.”
Mrs. Mabilog--or the Mabilog family--probably have had enough.
Any wife, a mother or a sister, can feel what Mrs. Mabilog felt when her husband was verbally abused repeatedly in national media, kicked while down on all four, subjected to unconscionable indignity, and treated like a worthless human being even if he wasn’t fighting back.
It seems the president was hell-bent not only to kill Mayor Mabilog’s enthusiasm for public service, but also his spirit as a human being.

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If you are a victim of a false accusation, a slanderous and baseless imputation, a black propaganda and toxic politics, and your wife happens to be Mrs. Mabilog, who believes in your absolute innocence, you’re not doomed.
Judging from her passionate and fiery rebuttal of the president’s soliloquy linking her husband to a despicable activity based only on a fringe “intelligence report”, Mrs. Mabilog is the type of wife who will bite the bullet for her husband; a wife who’s willing to transform into a Medusa, a winged human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair, and turn into stone those who will cast aspersion on her beloved husband.
The presidential persecution actually was too much; it’s over kill and already OA (overacting).
Is Mayor Mabilog really the worst politician in the Philippines?
What will President Duterte feel if one day, a political enemy will become president, by a stoke of luck, and also humiliate his son, Paolo; or daughter, Sara, and insist without any shred of evidence that they are members of international drug syndicate?
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:2)

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There are others in President Duterte’s incredible list who may also be innocent like Mayor Mabilog, but their family members--wives, husbands, children--aren’t that intrepid and cocksure like Mrs. Mabilog to engage the foul-mouthed president in a word war.
We suspect some of those 46 politicians in the list could be really engaged in illegal drugs trade.
They should be prosecuted and prevented from being elected into public office; it’s a mockery of the law if they are paid by the taxpayers’ money and yet they promote and benefit from the destruction of those hooked on prohibited substance.
But the innocent should be spared from blatant and perpetual humiliation.
There’s no spare parts for a damaged reputation.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)

Manny Pacquiao next Philippine president?

“Somebody asked me about the current choice we're being given in the presidential election. I said, Well, it's like two of the scariest movies I can imagine.”
--Dean Koontz

By Alex P. Vidal

NEW YORK CITY -- Don't be scared.
The hoi polloi in the Philippines failed to send action star Fernando “Da King” Poe Jr. to Malacanang in 2004 partly because of the “Hello Garci” scandal.
Come 2022 presidential election, will they try again and succeed when boxing icon Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao becomes a candidate?
Like “Da King”, Pacquaio is identified with the masa, the “mamang sorbetero”, “isang kahig, isang tuka” and the bakya crowd.
When Poe was "killed" in the film, some of his fans ran amuck literally (this happened somewhere in Mindanao when Poe was not yet a presidential candidate, according to some reports).
When Pacquiao lost a fight, some of his irate fans cried “we wuz robbed” and were determined to lynch sportswriters like me who explained why he was defeated.
Candidates like Pacquiao, Mocha Uson, Dolphy, Poe, Erap could easily hit paydirt in the Philippines.
Article VII, Section 2 of the 1987 Constitution provides that no person may be elected President unless he or she is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines, a registered voter, able to read and write, at least 40 years of age on the day of the election, and a resident of the Philippines for at least 10 years.
Pacquiao, who will turn 40 on December 17, 2018, will be qualified to run in 2022 under the Philippine charter.

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At least two prominent leaders known all over the world have predicted Pacquiao’s ascension to Malacanang in the near future.
They were Top Rank promoter Bob Arum in sports and President Rodrigo R. Duterte in government.
I personally heard Arum predict and endorse newly crowned WBA welterweight champion Pacquiao during his conquest of Oscar De La Hoya in Las Vegas in 2008.
“Because of his popularity and the tremendous pride and glory that he gave the Philippines, Manny (Pacquiao) will definitely be the next president of the Philippines,” Arum, a lawyer, told us during the pre-fight press conference 10 years ago.
During Pacquiao’s 38th birthday in 2016, Duterte, who asked Pacquiao to retire after demolishing Lucas Martin Mathysse in Kuala Lumpur on July 15, 2018, told the crowd in the young senator’s party that “with your own style, alam ko na magiging presidente ka rin. Ipagpatuloy mo ang ginagawa mo (I know that you will also someday become the president. Just continue what you are doing). ”
Pacquiao’s popularity among the same quality and bracket of voters that gave Poe, former president and now Manila mayor Joseph “Erap” Estrada, former senators Lito Lapid, Ramon Revilla Sr., Bong Revilla and President Duterte overwhelming votes, has snowballed now that he has bagged the WBA 147-lb diadem and he is expected to provide the fans with more excitement and entertainment when he defends his title.

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Now that Pacquiao has revealed he isn’t yet quitting as a prizefighter at 39 and he will be promoted by his own MP Promotions without the need for any imprimatur from Arum and without any curfew from Freddie Roach, this would give him the leverage to solidify his political wherewithal and pile up more millions of dollars for his campaign kitty.
Fans have almost forgotten and have even forgiven Pacquiao for his lackluster performance against Jeff Horn and for hiding a shoulder injury in losing by unanimous decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr. that cost those who placed bets for him millions of pesos.
The way his seventh round KO victory over the Argentine dynamo was received by adoring fans in the Philippines could be a tell tale sign and a curt message for other presidential candidates with doctorate and Harvard degrees to begin shaking in their boots.