By Manny Piñol
People who are prim and proper are shocked and scandalized when the tough-talking Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte says he would hang criminals with ropes to save on electricity or that he would throw the corrupt into Manila Bay to fatten the fish.
Human rights advocates Leila de Lima, who is the country’s justice secretary, and Etta Rosales, head of the human rights commission in the Philippines, even publicly denounced Duterte’s public threats issued against criminals and warned that the Mayor could be charged criminally.
A young Davaoeña who identified herself as Jules Butlig and who claims to have grown up in the City of Davao knowing no other Mayor but Duterte, said the Mayor’s statements should be read between the lines.
In a message sent to http://xn--mannypiol-r6a.com/ on Facebook, Jules Butlig, who now lives in Makati, said understanding Duterte’s often inflammatory and discomforting statements should be an “exercise in critical thinking.”
“I am a daughter of Davao who longs to be back in my city. I love my city. I love my mayor. And I thank the heavens for him and for what he did for the city and its people,” she wrote in what was supposed to be a private message but which I decided to share with readers after she allowed me to.
“I ache when people here misjudge him for his crassness. Outsiders think of him only as the Dirty Harry. But the sons and daughters of Davao know that he is more than that. He is our daddy. He disciplines and protects us, provides us the conditions for a better life now and for the future,” she said.
“We love and respect him despite (or perhaps because of) his imperfections. We laugh off his expletives and we know how to read between his lines. We know that listening to him is an exercise in critical thinking because he has the penchant for dry humor and sarcasm,” Jules Butlig wrote.
“He is not just a gun-toting mayor, as mainstream media would have the rest of the population believe. More than that, he is a strong leader whose heart is in the right place, in his people,” she said.
Indeed, those who take Duterte’s public pronouncements literally are doomed to anger and disgust.
They fail to understand that the controversial Mayor’s statements are filled with sarcasm and contempt at the establishment, at government, at the justice system, at the church and at politicians who have made public service a llivelihood activity.
Duterte spews out invectives and expletives which ordinary people enraged by the wrongs in society and government now would like to shout publicly but do not have the courage to do so.
The “put…ina,” the “fu.. ..u,” and the dirty finger are expressions of disgust which the ordinary people themselves wanted to say and flash.
This is perhaps the secret behind Duterte’s almost unstoppable and phenomenal popularity surge.
The poor and the unshod could read between the lines of Duterte’s tough talk and expletives and they understand the dry humour and sarcasm.
Jules Butlig was right. People like Leila de Lima and Etta Rosales fail to see behind the crassness of Duterte the image of the ordinary Filipino who applauds as the Mayor slaps and pummels the dregs of society with his cutting and biting commentaries.
Duterte is the personification of Filipinos who are discontented with the corruption in government, the crime in the streets and the failure of government to really listen to the ordinary people.
The angry and frustrated masses see themselves in Duterte and they would like to run government, correct the wrongs in society and be heard and attended to.
They know they can only do that if they make Duterte their President.
(Photos of Rody Duterte and Jules Butlig downloaded from Facebook.)
By Manny Piñol
People who are prim and proper are shocked and scandalized when the tough-talking Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte says he would hang criminals with ropes to save on electricity or that he would throw the corrupt into Manila Bay to fatten the fish.
Human rights advocates Leila de Lima, who is the country’s justice secretary, and Etta Rosales, head of the human rights commission in the Philippines, even publicly denounced Duterte’s public threats issued against criminals and warned that the Mayor could be charged criminally.
A young Davaoeña who identified herself as Jules Butlig and who claims to have grown up in the City of Davao knowing no other Mayor but Duterte, said the Mayor’s statements should be read between the lines.
In a message sent to http://xn--mannypiol-r6a.com/ on Facebook, Jules Butlig, who now lives in Makati, said understanding Duterte’s often inflammatory and discomforting statements should be an “exercise in critical thinking.”
“I am a daughter of Davao who longs to be back in my city. I love my city. I love my mayor. And I thank the heavens for him and for what he did for the city and its people,” she wrote in what was supposed to be a private message but which I decided to share with readers after she allowed me to.
“I ache when people here misjudge him for his crassness. Outsiders think of him only as the Dirty Harry. But the sons and daughters of Davao know that he is more than that. He is our daddy. He disciplines and protects us, provides us the conditions for a better life now and for the future,” she said.
“We love and respect him despite (or perhaps because of) his imperfections. We laugh off his expletives and we know how to read between his lines. We know that listening to him is an exercise in critical thinking because he has the penchant for dry humor and sarcasm,” Jules Butlig wrote.
“He is not just a gun-toting mayor, as mainstream media would have the rest of the population believe. More than that, he is a strong leader whose heart is in the right place, in his people,” she said.
Indeed, those who take Duterte’s public pronouncements literally are doomed to anger and disgust.
They fail to understand that the controversial Mayor’s statements are filled with sarcasm and contempt at the establishment, at government, at the justice system, at the church and at politicians who have made public service a llivelihood activity.
Duterte spews out invectives and expletives which ordinary people enraged by the wrongs in society and government now would like to shout publicly but do not have the courage to do so.
The “put…ina,” the “fu.. ..u,” and the dirty finger are expressions of disgust which the ordinary people themselves wanted to say and flash.
This is perhaps the secret behind Duterte’s almost unstoppable and phenomenal popularity surge.
The poor and the unshod could read between the lines of Duterte’s tough talk and expletives and they understand the dry humour and sarcasm.
Jules Butlig was right. People like Leila de Lima and Etta Rosales fail to see behind the crassness of Duterte the image of the ordinary Filipino who applauds as the Mayor slaps and pummels the dregs of society with his cutting and biting commentaries.
Duterte is the personification of Filipinos who are discontented with the corruption in government, the crime in the streets and the failure of government to really listen to the ordinary people.
The angry and frustrated masses see themselves in Duterte and they would like to run government, correct the wrongs in society and be heard and attended to.
They know they can only do that if they make Duterte their President.
(Photos of Rody Duterte and Jules Butlig downloaded from Facebook.)
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