THE reason the name of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte resonates so loud and clear in recent surveys is obviously that the people think that only a person like him can put a stop to the criminality taking place in our country and bring the country to the levels of prosperity that the people are yearning for. In Davao City, Duterte completed the first task and is currently pursuing the second.
Duterte is well-known for his iron-fist approach to peace and order, to the point that he has been accused of tolerating death squads to liquidate suspected criminals. The criticism forgets that, when Duterte was elected mayor for the first time in 1988, Davao City was a hotbed of criminality, with communist rebels spreading their ideology on the one hand and the government-organized Alsa Masa vigilante group trying to neutralize them on the other. In between there were the bands of thieves, drug pushers, kidnappers on the rampage spreading fear and panic among the people.
Duterte neutralized them all.
Today, Davao City is one of the most peaceful and safest cities in our country.
Less well-known are Duterte’s programs of social uplift and economic development. Along with his no-nonsense traffic management, environmental conservation and urban renewal programs, Duterte has clearly focused social projects ranging from medical assistance, housing, education opportunities, including scholarships and day-care centers, to parks and playgrounds for the people. On the economic development front, he has a vigorous investment program, emphasizing Metro Davao’s agricultural and tourism potential.
Davao City today is truly one of our country’s best developed cities. The National Competitiveness Council recently ranked Davao City 4th most competitive city in our country (in terms of health, educational, and ICT infrastructure), 11th in economic dynamism (in terms of job generation and cost of doing business) and 13th in government efficiency (in terms of transparency, among other characteristics.)
Perhaps, what will test Duterte’s mettle at the presidency will be the challenge posed not by street-level crimes, but by the large-scale bribery and plunder taking place at the highest levels of government. Wrongdoing here is brazen, shameless and absolutely without compunction.
Here, Duterte will come face to face not with local gang leaders and their protectors, but with the national dynasties, whose public face is that of the President, the members of the Cabinet, the Senate President, the Speaker of the House, the senators and the congressmen who conceal their bosses’ malevolent intent with pompous oratory.
But Duterte seems ready for the challenge. In a recent interview, he said the first thing he will do in the fight against corruption will be to sound a warning, perhaps on his inaugural, that he would embark on a reformation of the government. “But if I find that in every corner there is a stumbling block, and people start to mess up the judicial processes and everything, I would tell them not to force my hand.”
It will be an epic battle but Rodrigo R. Duterte, if he remains unbending in mind, body and soul, steeled by the physical and moral support of the people, will win.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano