I Love The Philippines[1]
“It is the land of my birth. It is the home of my people.”
These words have long stayed in the recesses of my
memory until the man who broke the stereotypes of a national leader ran for the
highest office of the land. In his
campaign speeches, Rodrigo Duterte often stated the first three sentences of
the Patriotic Oath, better known in its Filipino translation, to remind
everyone his reasons for running.
Panatang
Makabayan[2],
if we recall, has been recited in schools. I still think the version adapted
since 2001 did not trigger the nationalistic spirit the way the 1955 version
did.
Who defined what a national leader should be anyway? Duterte
is very much a Filipino, having been born in the Visayas and living the rest of
his life in Mindanao – places that are also in a country where Luzon belongs: The
Philippines. For many decades Filipinos
have been brainwashed into believing that for someone to qualify for a national
post he should be from or have lived in Metro Manila.
Days into the new administration, let me count what I
see as breakthroughs. Kindly take note that my perspective is being an ordinary
citizen – not from the academe, not from the media, not from the development or
humanitarian community, not from business – but just an ordinary citizen. Okay, let’s just say my perspective is that of
a housewife and mother, also an end recipient of government services.
I realized that if I post my own confusion on social
media, it generated confusion. I think
I’m better at face-to-face rather than online debates. I am just amazed at how people can actually
spend hours on end debating online, nit-picking and splitting hairs they can
easily put up beauty salons anytime.
I told myself: Why not post something that helped
myself understand the issues? Quite
self-serving really, so I post the answers on social media the moment I get
them. True enough, I got more positive
exchanges which consequently helped me understand Duterte more.
The enumeration in this article is by no means
comprehensive, as I believe that what Duterte has accomplished until these past
few days cannot be put in one column.
When
you’re doing good, you become a brand.
Not the other way around.
This is the exact opposite of the conventional
approach of branding first then working on it second. Once they assume office, politicians
immediately think of how to brand themselves, how to package themselves, how to
make themselves look good. Their terms are
so consumed with communication activities that did not actually connect with
the Filipino people even if they flooded the public with press releases, press
conferences, media exposures, photo ops, epals, lofty messaging, fancy launches
– and especially during elections – lies, intrigues and black propaganda.
We can just imagine how much money is poured into what
is deceitfully packaged as “public relations” with nothing really happening to establish
relations with the public and make their lives better. In short, the branding never really stuck
because there were no results to back it up with in the first place. No real accomplishments.
In Duterte’s case, he has Exhibit A. Davao City was transformed from the backwaters
to a thriving society where government takes care of the weak, the vulnerable
and the oppressed.
Needless to say Duterte was a hands-on leader, did his
job as a public servant without fanfare.
When nobody knew what to do or everybody claiming they can do it, he was
already doing it and in the process produced desirable results. He did not show any drudgery in dispensing
his duties because he knows it is his duty to serve and he knows how to serve. (I like his phrase: “I hold it as an article
of faith…”)
Duterte did not have to spend money to design a brand for
himself because his work is already etched in the hearts and minds of the
people whose lives he touched. Come campaign season, it was up to the people
to convey to others in their own creative ways that Duterte was the man. There was no specific campaign design, no
specific color, no specific jingle, etc. It was all about Duterte, DU30 and being Filipino. With substance like
that, style never posed a problem.
The
cries of the voiceless as advocated by civil society were answered by a man who
happened to have listened to it all
The proliferation of non-government organizations
(NGOs) and cause-oriented groups must have been the people’s way of coping
where government forgot its duties. They cried about every right imaginable
along with the dire need for basic services – in the streets, in forums,
symposia, dialogues, courts, senate or congressional hearings, name it. Many times it is paid with the lives of
advocates themselves, aside from so much money (donated, private, aid) going
down the drain. I say going down the
drain because again this money just plugs the gaps in a system where another
leak would crack up somewhere anytime.
If
indeed a functioning government would make NGOs irrelevant if not minimized, people
can then redirect their energies on more productive endeavors.
If there is an area where Duterte is an expert, it is
in listening. His radars are fine tuned to
the needs of the people and where to look for help to address these needs. The voice of the people is not necessarily
the loudest. For example: aren’t children people too? Aren’t lumads people too? Doesn’t the
environment have rights too? Who will shout for them?
In short, Duterte knows
how to listen especially to those who cannot even express themselves in a
society that has forgotten to take care of the weak. Past administrations just passed laws without
necessarily implementing it.
With Duterte now as
chief implementer of the law, it seems that the greatest surprise among the
most skeptic in the NGO community is that the answers to their causes came with
the most unexpected person in a most unexpected time.
Corruption
in the media was exposed by Duterte.
The question is like: If media exposes corruption in
government; if media exposes corruption in the private sector a.k.a business;
if media exposes corruption in the church – who exposes corruption in the
media?
The spat highlighted the reputation of Manila being
the gossip capital of the Philippines courtesy, as I like to say, of the
oligarch-controlled nazional medyas. Oligarch-controlled because it is the
oligarchs who are financing newspapers and television and dictated what kind of
news should come out; nazi because like Hitler’s time, these oligarchs take
evil pleasure in controlling the minds of the public; medyas because like used
socks, this type of media who churn out unverified information to make it look
like news is not only dirty but they actually stink with their reputation.
A foreign media watchdog sent out an unheeded call to
boycott Duterte, to which Duterte responded by turning tables on the media –
something really unexpected in a society that felt compelled to be subservient
to this monolith. Well, if you keep on
clarifying a message to someone who does not take time to understand what is
being explained to him, why grant an interview at all?
As a consumer of news, we listeners, readers, and
viewers deserve quality products. For these
products to be of high quality it must be objective, giving as much as possible
factual, timely and relevant information.
Good for merchandise because it is our right as consumers to return
defective products. How then, can we as
the end-users, return defective news?
How, as Duterte put it, could you ever make profits
out of destroying the dignity of a person?
He said something like we must have forgotten that for the Filipino,
honor is almost equivalent to life. If
you take away honor, you take away life.
Clearly he has a way of saying that if you want to be respected, give
respect first.
He has also classified media practitioners into three
– the crusaders, the mouthpieces, and the vultures. Journalists who excel in their profession
should be able to tell that that Duterte did not lump them along with the
mouthpieces and the vultures.
When Duterte said that corruption must stop, it was
not directed only to government, the church and business; but to the media too.
The
masculinity crisis in government has ended.
It ended when Rodrigo Duterte took his oath as the 16th
President of the Republic of the Philippines.
It ended when the men and women he appointed into
office, like President Duterte himself, had their reputation ahead of
them. Reputation that revolved around
values of integrity, people-centered work ethic and excellence in their chosen
fields.
In March of this year I wrote about Masculinity Crisis
in Government in my blog which also appeared in Mindanews.[3] It described how the
Philippines was going through a crisis that is rarely, if not at all,
discussed. Call it leadership crisis,
leadership vacuum, but interestingly to me it is a crisis of masculinity – a
crisis of men who “transcended their egos, fears and selfishness; and made sacrifices
of themselves as a gift for those they have been called to protect.”
The newly appointed President’s men and women possess
the supposedly masculine traits of protecting the weak, the vulnerable and the
oppressed. They are the sheepdogs who will
protect the sheep from the wolves, so to speak.
The masculinity crisis also ended when Duterte not
only emphasized the role of the police and the military, but gave them so much
importance with compensation they have long deserved. In his words, these men obey orders “without
a whimper” in the name of God and Country.
Indeed, how can you better take care of men who pay their dues even with
their lives.
In a sense, 16 million voters ended the masculinity
crisis by voting Duterte into office.
Spirituality
over religiosity
Thanks to Facebook and YouTube, people now had a
glimpse of how their candidates lived their lives long before they said they
were running. I haven’t seen any
government servant, much less a president, who has been prayed over as much as
Duterte. Duterte invoked God’s will in
his speeches the way other candidates did a litany of their self-appreciated
accomplishments. One may squirm upon
hearing God’s name in the speeches, but it’s just impossible to miss.
Looking
Forward
In an earlier blog entry I said: “…before he [Duterte] disappears from the
local governance scene, I hope the culture of efficiency and service is no
longer personality-dependent but ingrained as a way of life of Davaoenos.
And hopefully radiate to the rest of the country[4].”
While allegations of Duterte’s extra-judicial killings
still have to be proven, his track record for wholehearted service to his
people is already proven. Had the claims
that he had killed at least a thousand people been true, Davao Gulf would have already
been colored red. And besides, any streetsmart
logic would have already answered his rhetorical question, “Asa man nako na ilubong?” (Where would I bury those? Referring to
the thousand dead bodies).
If Duterte is the country’s last card, his administration
is about second chances. Now that he has
moved from local towards national governance, second chances would mean that
people can have the protection of the government if they lead drug-free,
corruption-free, and crime-free lives on a national scale. Second chance also for
Duterte to prove that beyond the words and the bickering, is appropriate action
and moving forward.
For the rest of us it is also the chance to regain our
pride as a country, reclaim our identity as a nation. Confusing indeed, for example, to find foreign
sounding food being served on official functions in a country that produces a
whole range not found in other places. Who then, can endorse the country’s products better than the country’s
President himself?
It is no longer the time to preach to the choir, so to
speak. Walang iwanan (No one is left behind). If each of the 16 million Filipinos who
sealed their confidence through a vote for Duterte reach out to one other
person each, that would mean another 16 million more, theoretically. There’s no need to even debate in order to
convince those who are still in disbelief as actions speak louder than
words. Listen to the complaints, even
those left unsaid; and convey to the rightful agency for the necessary action
and feedback. Isn’t that reward enough
for a Duterte supporter to see fellow Filipinos enjoying the services of
government, even if they considered Duterte insignificant at the start?
And because the Panatang Makabayan tears up many
Filipinos who have longed to regain their country back from the oligarchs, may
we indeed strive hard to be a true Filipino in the land of our people --
Sa
isip, sa salita, at sa gawa.
* * * * * * *
Cotabato City
6 July 2016
Aveen Acuña-Gulo posts herself on Facebook as a Monumental Operations Manager (MOM). She is a Bukidnon-born Cebuano mother of three (3) Maguindanao-Ilonggo-Cotabateño children; who will always be a child at heart even if she is a hundred years old.
She wrote a column “The Voice” for the Mindanao Cross from 1991-2006.
She likes to challenge stereotypes. “Don’t worry about my opinions. It won’t make a dent to the conventional,” she says.
