Cutthroat lingo

I am personally getting tired of the macho posturing of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. A national daily yesterday talked about the need for more funeral parlors if he gets elected as he might go on a killing spree of those involved in illegal drugs.

I too am against illegal drugs and have worked silently for years to address this issue. But I am not about to go kill someone involved in the drug trade.

Here is a would-be-president issuing such statements that encourages the public to put the law into their hands. That is scary and it is mystifying what his supporters see in this man that talks this way. If you look at the crop of people in our community who are backing Duterte's candidacy, these are professionals and it confounds me that none is reacting against his statements.

Duterte also said that if these illegal drug traders will not leave the country, they better commit suicide than face his wrath when he becomes president.

If you look at the surveys, many of those who are pushing for Duterte are intelligent voters who are tired of the criminality and corruption in our country that they see him as the tough guy who will probably rid our government and community of these bad elements.

I agree coz he has done that for his city and perhaps can replicate the same nationwide. But we also know that behind the said “cleansing” are allegations of extra-judicial ways of doing it and although nothing has been proven, Duterte's statements just affirm what he is capable of doing to a point of blindly ignoring the value of life.

Are we so low to allow ourselves to support someone who makes public his threat of killing? I understand the frustration we have over our authorities and the justice system over this drug problem. But is that justifiable to back this man who has no compulsion to kill someone because of it?

I have admired Duterte in the past because on the other side of that tough posturing is a man with a big heart as evidenced by his fast actions during the Yolanda tragedy.

He has shown too that tough love can produce good results again evidenced by the peace and order situation in his city and how he really is on top of everything, even doing the surprise rounds in his taxi to round up street children and discipline their parents.

But he doesn't have to brag about his capacity to kill coz it diminishes his value and while others may adore this tough-stance, what values does this leave our impressionable youth? That it's ok to kill for as long as you are killing a criminal? Scary….just scary.

In the local scene, things are heating up between Vice Governor Bong Lacson and his contender, Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer, after the former cried foul over alleged lambasting by media practitioners, purportedly upon the instruction of someone.

Well, since his only contender is the congressman, Jeffrey felt alluded to as the one who hires media barkers to criticize him and warned Lacson not to start the fire and to name these paid hacks.

It's political season and there will always be media practitioners who will choose one over the other but that doesn't mean they are paid.

I've said this openly that I support Jeffrey because of what he has done for the sugar industry and for our province in general. I've also lauded Bong in the past and have been critical of him at the same time but that doesn't mean I get paid for it. Just like the other media practitioners, except of course for those who go overboard, we merely state our personal opinion on matters that we feel people should know about and again, it does not necessarily mean we are paid for it.

I would also like to caution my colleagues in the media to stick to issues and not to go on a personal attack against a candidate particularly about his private life that has nothing to do with his capacity to govern. Unless of course that private life may affect or has affected his decision-making, then I guess even an attack on a personal level is fair game.

As Gov. Freddie Maranon said, when you offered yourself in public service, be ready to have your life perused and criticized. And while that is not my style, there are others who will cater to the juiciness of personal stories since these are often what the masses are more interested in.

If we do a survey among voters, the platform of governance is the least they are interested in. Just look at the people elected at the national level, many of them are based on personalities, some even brainless but because they're popular, they end up getting elected.

I guess if you have something to hide, then politics, just like showbiz, is not your world.*

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