Last Wednesday, Jan. 20, Manila Broadcasting Corp. and Rappler co-sponsored a forum for the major presidential tandems at the De La Salle’s Yuchengco Auditorium. From what we learned, Vice President Jejomar Binay immediately declined after receipt of invitation. His handlers must have told him, “why risk it?” The likes of Trillanes and Cayetano may just resurrect the corruption charges against you.
Binay’s snapshot numbers have recovered from the low twenties to the low thirties in the past two surveys, December 2015 and January 2016. This came about because the guns against him were silenced somewhat and the news focused on the DQ cases against Poe and Duterte. And, as his handlers must have “wisely” advised, “no talk, no trouble,” just move, move, move all over the country. Meanwhile, expensive radio and television commercials did the talking for him.
Binay’s message reinforced his “hold” on the poor voters. The derisive adjectives “nognog” and “pandak,” used by detractors to describe him (and gleefully fanned by his own spokespersons and advertisements), were turned to an advantage. This is classic rich-versus-poor messaging strategy in the land of the benighted, and so far it’s working.
The Poe and Roxas tandems initially accepted to attend, which was really less of a debate format and more of a Q-and-A forum. It was only on Friday, Jan. 15 that the sponsors got final confirmation from Duterte and Cayetano that they would participate. By then, the Miriam-Bongbong tandem had likewise agreed to participate. But the following Monday, 18 January, one tandem declined, followed by the other. And on Tuesday, Miriam and Bongbong likewise declined. So on Wednesday afternoon, only Duterte and Cayetano appeared at the De La Salle auditorium, where some 2,000 faculty, students and representatives from other universities were physically present, and much, much more, on social media, television (PTV-4), and radio (DZRH’s nationwide network of more than 100 stations).
We can only surmise the reasons for the no-shows. I can understand Senadora Miriam’s plight: she may be feeling under the weather. As for Senadora Grace, maybe she was not in the right mood, the Supreme Court justices having just conducted the first oral arguments on her disqualification cases. As for Mar, well, who knows why?
The three “major” candidates prefer their super-expensive TV ads to do the story-telling for them. Thus far, the trio of Mar, Jojo and Grace are estimated to have already spent close to 3 billion pesos for ads, while Duterte has coughed up around 40 to 50 million. Never mind the platforms, the “un-intelligent” masa do not care for them anyway, the three “major” candidates must have thought.
They want to confine the debate among creative advertising agencies, instead of among the candidates. “Kathang-isip” instead of “tagisan ng galing at paninindigan.” The creative minds do their “kwentong kutsero” about “lumalaban pero may puso” for Poe; “daang matuwid” for a doleful Mar Roxas, and “kapwa n’yo nognog” for Binay.
Duterte chose to come. In an interview, he said “hindi ako anak-mayaman, at hindi ako nagpayaman sa serbisyo.” And added, “hindi ko kaya makipagtapatan sa magastos na advertisement ng mga iba d’yan.”
So he and Alan Cayetano took the stage for an hour and a half, almost.
They talked about “disorder.” “Gulo.”
This, in a nutshell was the real state of the nation, Duterte perorated. Disorder.
Drugs are all over, even in the boondocks of Quezon and Mindoro. Crime prevails. Hardly anyone is afraid of the law and the legal process. Anyway, one can pay “kotong” to the cop and traffic enforcer; “padulas” to the prosecutor; “mas malaking padulas” to the judges.
Disorder reigns in the capital’s streets, with traffic all day and all night, whatever the day. Even in Cebu City, traffic has become unbearable. There is no long-term planning, coupled with delays in implementation of projects because “imperial” Manila is always “teka-teka.” The NCR’s three “high-speed” light rail systems are not only disconnected, they get derailed quite often, the result of poor maintenance managed by incompetent crooks. Gulo.
As Alan Cayetano segues to the Duterte thesis of disorder, the ordinary Filipino has to wake up early at dawn, cursing his miserable life, because he has to line up at the MRT station to get to work. The train gets derailed, so he has no option but to take the bus, or if close to payday, the taxi. Traffic gets to him. He goes to work already exhausted, physically and mentally. Then when he gets the paycheck, he finds so many deductions—Pag-ibig, PhilHealth, the “paluwagan,” and SSS (which can’t even grant a 2,000 peso pension increase). “Paano na pagtanda ko at nag-retire?” he asks himself. “Baka pabigat pa ako sa mga apo ko…p…i na buhay ito.”
“Look beyond my cursing, because at the back of it is the agony and misery of the Filipino,” Duterte says.
“At pagdating sa bahay, after another round of seemingly endless struggle against traffic, the wifey with a worried look says—wala pa si Ineng galing sa iskwela, gabing-gabi na.” So poor husband and harried wife worry and pray—“huwag naman sana na-kidnap, o na-rape ng drug addict.”
Disorder. Day-in and night-out. Every single day for the suffering Filipino family.
We all have to put an end to this miserable disorder. And, Duterte says, and repeats and repeats—drugs and criminality first, then everything will be in order.
He and his vice president, Alan Cayetano, have barely 106 days from today to convince the voter, all 50 million of them, that the rule of disorder must end, and the rule of order, of respect for if not fear of the law, will make life better for the suffering people of this benighted land. And that they can do it, something neither Binay nor Mar nor Poe, can deliver.
