Indeed, the photos streaming into our newsfeeds tell it all. Our eyes don’t tell lies, and it is upsetting when there are attempts to put the crowd estimates at less than a million. Have they forgotten crowd estimates during Pope visits and other events when mammoth crowds converge in Luneta? Or, were those estimates wrong? If they were correct, would they dare tell us now that our eyes lie?
It is useless to quibble about numbers with individuals who are bent on superficiality — deliberately or not. They are, afterall, the very bozos who would typically discount what others would want to say by words or actions. They will only listen if things suit their vested interests. To say that Rodrigo Duterte’s (DU30’s) miting de avance was just a big political rally is to miss the whole point by a mile. Others were certainly political rallies. DU30’s crowd is a movement, as Teddy Locsin aptly described it.
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More than the numbers, it is the intensity in the crowd, the energy, the electrifying atmosphere, that should be looked at. To underestimate this is to go against a strong undercurrent that is starting to affect the surface. It may be a social volcano ready to erupt, and if they don’t pay attention, or they suppress it more, the eruption will come as a surprise. What do these crowds that have showed up in the course of two months mean?
We have seen the various mammoth crowds in videos and pictures wherever DU30 went in the last two months. I didn’t go to Luneta, but I was in the one in Alabang. I stood at the edge of that crowd far from the stage as a precautionary measure against any possible stampede. Still, the energy was contagious. I could imagine what Luneta must have been.
Young and old, the beautiful and the average, the well-heeled and the unwashed, they came via the deplorable mass transports, or via private AUVs or SUVs and the thousands of 125-cc motorcycles that now dangerously pepper our streets. It might as well have been a rock concert where they could jump and dance in wild frenzy. But no, they could not jump or dance, so they stood unmoving in their respective places, bottling their feelings inside, stretching their heads from time to time in order not to miss anything in the stage.
In the couple of hours they were part of the crowd, they went from tears to laughter to silence, and back again, with everyone else. And when it was time to sing, they sang their hearts out like they were being freed from something they could not yet understand. For sure, they stood proud, really, really proud, when it was time to pay homage to the national colors. It had to be an indescribable feeling to see the red, white and blue being put in its proper place again. You knew right there and then that the yellow we had for 30 years was a total anomaly.
This is about DU30, but more critically, it is also not about him. This is the reason why the cameras caught him with tears after he had time to have a good glance of the crowd. This is not the monster, the media wants to paint him. I have to guess he could not understand his emotions, his thoughts. On the one hand, he must have been glad his message, even how garbled, was getting across to the mass of humanity that was confronting him right there. Different individuals, different groups, were interpreting his message as they pleased, but it didn’t matter at that moment. On the other, it must have finally sunk in him that something much, much bigger than a simple mayor of some backwater city was being placed on his shoulder. It is a great privilege. A great responsibility.
People have searched for a medium through which they could vent their frustrations. They want to scream, they want to kick, because being a Filipino has become a passport of dishonor. Pinoy Pride has become so vacuous; it is irritating to see it in the internet, it is repulsive when demonstrated in public. They want to say putang-ina in the most malutong way, but ours is supposed to be a decent society. Yet, everybody knows it is only decent on the outside. It is rotten, foul-smelling, in the inside, and so putang-ina is reserved for private conversations.
They want to be bastos. Far too long, their intelligence had been insulted — all sorts of kabastusan had been thrown their way. They want to lash out at anything and everything, but they simply couldn’t. Protests have become useless and have become identified with those in the fringes. And if ever they protest, who will listen? Everywhere, wells have been poisoned. The Top One Percent is enclaved. Those in government are busy being puppets of those enclaved, and if they are not puppets, they are Ponzi schemers resurrected from hell — criminals in Mercs and Bimmers. And all the rest have to be the hoi polloi who could not complain about the filth in high places. And if they have been waiting for a trickle down, none has come economically, it is only filth that had trickled down. Culture has been damaged. Left and right, front and back, there is moral decay.
Even then, it still came as a shock when a guy showed up in the horizon lashing out at everything the hoi polloi wanted to lash at. There was caution in the beginning for he was wrecking havoc on established norms. He admits to having violated everything in the Ten Commandments and more. The higher ups initially ignored him for they predicted he would implode all by himself sooner than later. He didn’t implode, and the more the higher-ups attacked him, the more the hoi polloi took note of the guy, and there was delight inside, a schadenfreude, the higher-ups were in utter confusion. The hoi polloi found their medium. He curses, so that they don’t need to curse. He is bastos, so that they don’t need to be bastos.
What the Establishment underestimated is the mood of the nation, the depth of frustration. People have simply become sick and tired of propagandas and lies — 30 years. Yes, 30 years, and such lies were bound to be exposed. PNoy doubled down on incompetence, lack of empathy and patronage politics, and thus the entire yellow shenanigan became clear, bright as in a high noon sun. Continuously trumpeting credit upgrades and window dressed statistics is no way to run a country. Even the unschooled and the non-economist feel the difference between a bubble economy and sustainable development. Believe it or not, the hoi polloi could sense when a country is moving in the wrong direction, or just pretending to be moving in the right direction. This is the reason for the apathy all around outside of election periods.
It took a few brave souls at the start to close ranks with this crass individual. But, bravery is also contagious, and as soon as it picked up its momentum, it was unstoppable. DU30 shot up to the top of the surveys. The last survey showed he was at 33%, a double digit margin over his next rival. It would require desperation and a distorted mentality to cheat him, for it will have to be massive. Only a guy prepared for a bloody civil war, or an uncivil revolution, would undertake such madness.
But, stupidity is forever. PNoy read this as 67% being opposed to DU30, and he frantically called, three days before election, the other candidates to unite and face DU30 as one. He forgot that his candidate, Mar Roxas, was at 20%, which means 80% are actually against Daang Matuwid. It is just that 47% may not have yet mustered the courage to place their bet on a very un-traditional politician. A united ticket as that PNoy and Mar tried to engineer would have just pushed more towards DU30, possibly more than half of the 47%, for the clamor is about change, not continuity. We wish PNoy and Mar were successful in engineering that unity if only to prove our foregoing hypothesis as true and correct. But, alas, as proven in the last six years, PNoy and Mar fucked any major project they touched.
Nevertheless, it takes courage to bet the future on DU30. He curses, he is uncouth, he tells rape jokes, he has a very non-traditional family life, and still lives in that modest house he had since he was a lowly fiscal. Why hasn’t he enriched himself like all the other politicians when he actually is of the Roa clan, one of the elite families of Mindanao? Who is the real DU30?
The witch hunter, Antonio Trillanes, insists DU30 has a double life. But how could we believe Trillanes, a loose cannon, who has acted time and again based on unsubstantiated evidence as well as just on his fertile imagination? Trillanes goes on a rampage at the drop of hat — a hat very much suspected of containing several millions in mercenary fees paid per black OPs project. So, how could Trillanes stand against DU30 who is very much a WYSISWG guy? So far, what we could see is that we are comparing pineapple with string beans. One is a dirty mercenary; the other, a principled politician. Good that DU30 didn’t go to BPI personally; there was no need for him to meet a creature of lower category.
But, there is no point in further straining ourselves on who DU30 is. Unlike PNoy who has identified Daang Matuwid with himself, and himself, with Daang Matuwid, DU30 had made it clear he is not about to move toward such a stupid path (pun intended). So, let us stop looking for a politician in DU30 in the traditional mold. Many don’t know they are comparing a pineapple with string beans, and that is why they end up puzzled and bewildered.
DU30 has just one message: let us clean the filth. We cannot build a house on a ground that is filthy — on an active landfill full of garbage. A house on such a landfill eventually comes crashing down with no one trying to be responsible for the crash, and yet each one trying to conveniently blame another. Simple, no one checked the ground and the foundation. So, unlike other politicians he could not promise building a beautiful house as of yet. All he promised was that he would initiate the cleaning. He will start clearing the ground of garbage since there seems to be no one who wants to undertake this dirty job seriously, though many have paid it lip service and lately, with a hyped slogan. And the job is going to be dirty for how could one try to remain clean when one gets to touch dirt.
But, he is not trying to identify the message with himself, nor himself with the message. He said many times: please forget him if you don’t like the message. If you like the message, then see if he is dirty enough who could do the dirty job. But, voila, certain people could not reject the message nor him for there is something logical about what he is saying. In the process, wittingly or unwittingly, he has created a movement. One should only take a look at the crowds in GenSan, Davao and Cebu simultaneously holding their own rallies with that crowd in Luneta. DU30 didn’t show up in those three other rallies, but only in Luneta. If that is not a movement, I don’t know what is.
Unfortunately, the Makati Business Club and Management Association of the Philippines (MBC-MAP), the media, and others don’t see the movement; they only see a DU-dirty. Yes, it is a nebulous movement as of now, but if they look closer, they will see that a seed has been planted. Perhaps, the movement will die a natural death, if the seed does not get planted in the grounds of Malacañang. But, we know that good ideas, especially the ones based on so much commonsense, have a way of sprouting out in the most unexpected manner. The powers-that-be are therefore well advised if they take a closer look if that crowd in Luneta was just a political rally or a movement.
MBC-MAP and the media could be forgiven for their blindness. They are so used to looking for traditional politicians, inept or not, provided such Trapos could fatten their bank accounts. This is especially true in the last six years when 75% of the wealth of the nation just went straight up to the pockets of the the Top 10%, and the 90% have been left competing for the crumbs.
The Ateneo faculty and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, however, cannot be forgiven for their superficial reading of the situation. They see the outside dirt of DU30, but cannot see internal rot of the society, which would not be if they only did their job as the moral guardians. And yet, in their holier than thou mentality, they are casting the first stones in a political arena, a secular territory in which in the first place, they should be hands-off. If they had done their jobs, perhaps we don’t need to debate a DU30. But since the filth is real and ever-present, shouldn’t they be the first ones to embrace the guy who has offered himself to do the job they have failed to do? Maybe, they don’t know the answers, and that is why a movement is inevitable.
GRP Featured Comment hall-of-famer. Former executive of the Far East Regional Office of a US-based multinational company living out of a suitcase covering the market from Tokyo to Mumbai to Melbourne, and all the countries within that triangle. Got tired after logging 300k air miles per year. Now, I just have a little trading biz on specialty chemicals.
This really perks me up before going to my precinct ..,,God bless add you summed it up beautifully
>> He admits to having violated everything in the Ten Commandments and more.
Add, this is the reason people vote for him. The average Filipino takes great delight in pissing on the only hard-and-fast Laws that God ever gave us, while the average Filipino politician takes delight in inventing ridiculous new law that drag the country deeper into hell. Duterte is everything Filipinos want to be, or see in themselves. Democracy at its finest, I suppose.
>> DU30 has just one message: let us clean the filth. We cannot build a house on a ground that is filthy — on an active landfill full of garbage.
I completely agree with your view that one must first get the ball rolling, and finishing the job will be a task for others. He might, just possibly, be the right man for that. However, you know what happens you ask Filipinos to help you pick up the garbage?
1) They ask “how much will you give me”?
2) They point and laugh while you pick up the garbage.
3) After you’ve finished, they put all the garbage back again.
When decent people see that happen, they no doubt feel rage enough to vote for people like Duterte. I’ll happily admit that I feel like blowing people away when already they’re standing there shooting themselves in the foot. Help them finish the job, as it were. However, Duterte intends to follow through. When you actually put a gun into the hands of weak-minded individuals – and it’s not going to be Duterte himself acting as judge, jury and executioner for 20,30 million irredeemable Filipinos, is he? – bad stuff happens. Duterte’s task will not be cleaning up the garbage, but deciding when it’s clean enough.
you forget, most filipinos are sheeple. they will follow blindly if they see the majority of the herd doing so. they may complain a lot, but buckle nonetheless to authority.
this can be used to his advantage.
and as long as the church wont be able to instigate its flock to revolt like it did in 1986 (which i doubt, thanks to the younger generations’ being more irreligious than the last), he doesnt have to worry about those clowns anymore.
God is on Duterte’s Side – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tK5OU_TJhk
Fuck God, Allah, and Buddha on this election. Let’s just do the right thing for country and people.
oh well… the religious Gods will be pissed off against Duterte & I don’t care if he’ll be killed by those religious terrorists or extremists because of this controversial quote…
https://youtu.be/e7GhgW8KZPg
…as long as he could make a better & newer Philippines. #ChangeIsComing
hahaha! agreed. God has nothing to do with this stupidity of democrazy.
A Final Message to All Voters on Election Day – Zaxx
Every voter should read this article by Add before going to the precinct to vote today to blacken out those precious little circles on the ballot. Du30 cannot be judged/taken at face value as looks can be very deceiving.
As probably the first author here to get out into the open in pushing for this unconventional iron-fisted character way back in one of my first articles:
Can Iron-fisted Leadership Turn the Philippines into a Major World Power?
Ironic Rody: the Iron Rod of the Philippines
and followed by many other articles to rub it in
which to my enjoyment took a lot of flak (like Du30 I kind-of thrive on controversy haha), I can now sit back with some level of relief that all this struggle with all of you in our growing family here at GRP to turn this nation in the direction of common sense has finally borne fruit.
Du30 is imperfect on the outside by design because he is the opposite of a wolf in sheep’s clothing (that fills our decently appearing corrupt-to-the core government, society and even churches): yes, a “sheep in wolf’s clothing” if you may – ‘coz in every expletive PI he utters, Pinoys feel his deep pain over how our government has all these many years been oppressing and ignoring its very people.
I was reading my Bible this morning (yes I’m like Denzel Washington – “Man on Fire”) opening to Psalm 139 “Oh that You would slay the wicked O God! Depart from me therefore you bloodthirsty men… Do I not hate them O Lord who hate you? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.”
The reason why Du30’s “I will kill you” resonates in many of us is because we are all so sick and tired of those who destroy our nation in their greed at the price of their fellow men created in the image of the DNA coder Himself.
Du30’s miting de avance was like the “EDSA People Power Revolution” in reverse: a move from Yellow Sham Lame-Duck Democracy back to Strong Iron-fisted Leadership – a return of the scepter to the one with the Midas touch.
The mammoth rally that revealed the enormous biceps of this movement is a milestone landmark event that will echo on in history as the day the tides finally turned in the favor of common sense in this weary zombie-afflicted country. The fact that Du30’s camp was the one which took hold of Luneta (ground zero of historical change) on the final showdown of the presidential campaign season is in itself symbolic.
The Yellows held their rally in Quezon city (a most fitting choice to symbolize MLQ’s famous “hell run by Filipinos”) with just 30,000 supporters (based on one estimate) – totally eclipsed! Every other presidential candidate’s camp must be jaw dropping in a stunned state mesmerized, saliva drooling in seeing the aerial view of Luneta filled to the brim.
It’s indeed a great day to proudly wave the flag of this battered nation. This comes as a sweet foretaste of victory for those longing for the downfall of the twin towers of corruption and incompetence.
Ask yourselves the question: which among the winnable candidates has the best interest of the masses in his/her heart? Listen to your gut feeling to vote today: and you will hear the voice of reason just as I did.
Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!
* * *
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1omoJMiqRA
And by the way if any of you care to know: I voted for BBM (obviously). Cayetano already has a secure place in the coming Du30 administration – his time will come.
agreed. that’s my strategy as well. well he can be VP under BBM come 2022 but he’ll be bashed if that happens. hahaha!
anyway BBM should win this election. let’s hope that good people will prevail this time around.
A Final Message to All Voters on Election Day – Zaxx
Every voter should read this article by Add before going to the precinct to vote today to blacken out those precious little circles on the ballot. Du30 cannot be judged/taken at face value as looks can be very deceiving.
As probably the first author here to get out into the open in pushing for this unconventional iron-fisted character way back in one of my first articles:
Can Iron-fisted Leadership Turn the Philippines into a Major World Power?
Ironic Rody: the Iron Rod of the Philippines
and followed by many other articles to rub it in
which to my enjoyment took a lot of flak (like Du30 I kind-of thrive on controversy haha), I can now sit back with some level of relief that all this struggle with all of you in our growing family here at GRP to turn this nation in the direction of common sense has finally borne fruit.
Du30 is imperfect on the outside by design because he is the opposite of a wolf in sheep’s clothing (that fills our decently appearing corrupt-to-the core government, society and even churches): yes, a “sheep in wolf’s clothing” if you may – ‘coz in every expletive PI he utters, Pinoys feel his deep pain over how our government has all these many years been oppressing and ignoring its very people.
I was reading my Bible this morning (yes I’m like Denzel Washington – “Man on Fire”) opening to Psalm 139 “Oh that You would slay the wicked O God! Depart from me therefore you bloodthirsty men… Do I not hate them O Lord who hate you? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.”
The reason why Du30’s “I will kill you” resonates in many of us is because we are all so sick and tired of those who destroy our nation in their greed at the price of their fellow men created in the image of the DNA coder Himself.
Du30’s miting de avance was like the “EDSA People Power Revolution” in reverse: a move from Yellow Sham Lame-Duck Democracy back to Strong Iron-fisted Leadership – a return of the scepter to the one with the Midas touch.
The mammoth rally that revealed the enormous biceps of this movement (as Add rightly puts it) is a milestone landmark event that will echo on in history as the day the tides finally turned in the favor of common sense in this weary zombie-afflicted country. The fact that Du30’s camp was the one which took hold of Luneta (ground zero of historical change) on the final showdown of the presidential campaign season is in itself symbolic.
The Yellows held their rally in Quezon city (a most fitting choice to symbolize MLQ’s famous “hell run by Filipinos”) with just 30,000 supporters (based on one estimate) – totally eclipsed! Every other presidential candidate’s camp must be jaw dropping in a stunned state mesmerized, saliva drooling in seeing the aerial view of Luneta filled to the brim.
It’s indeed a great day to proudly wave the flag of this battered nation. This comes as a sweet foretaste of victory for those longing for the downfall of the twin towers of corruption and incompetence.
Ask yourselves the question: which among the winnable candidates has the best interest of the masses in his/her heart? Listen to your gut feeling to vote today: and you will hear the voice of reason just as I did.
Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!
* * *
And by the way if any of you care to know: I voted for BBM (obviously). Cayetano already has a secure place in the coming Du30 administration – his time will come.
*redundant post: please ignore/delete
I read the article through and, thanks to the bare and simple narration of the spectacle, I felt like I was there myself. I had written not too long ago, asking.. “what has happened to the old adage..it is the position that seeks the man, not the man seeking the position..”. I guess this is exactly what has happened, and what’s still happening here. I just pray that Mr. Duterte delivers on ‘most of the promise he represents’, (100% is perfection and there is no such thing). If he brings about palpable change.. one that is felt all the way to the grassroots, he will have earned all the paeans heaped upon him.. and then some.
20 years of a brutal dictatorship + 30 years of dysfunctional national system = 50 years of chaos in our country!!!
Let’s STOP this nonsense (STOP IT!!!) and build a new Philippines for a better future to the Filipino people. Duterte till the end! #ChangeIsComing 😉
In the latest partial unofficial result ut appears soon-to-be-predident Rody Duterte leads closest rival Sen. Grace Llamanzares by about 4 million votes. About 62% of the total votes cast was already counted. We still got a ling way to go so let us keep our fingers crossed for Digong to finally bag the presidency. The Yellows may yet conjure their evil spell to reverse the trend. Soon to be vice president Bongbong Marcos leads about 900,000 votes over Yellow dummy Rep. Leni Robredo but I still hope that FM jr will widen his gap to prevent a whammy.
Amazing write up as usual, Add. Thanks!
GRP has been the venue that has opened up a lot of minds by presenting a gordian knot floating in a tepid stinking stagnant fluid- like ether to dissect and eventually enable it’s unravelling. Often mistaken by narrow weak mids as simply bashing and insulting “proud pinoys”.
I was initially inclined towards mar roxas- being part of the fortunate 10% by virtue of birth. I recalled as a young teen, still too young to vote learning from history lessons in several elite catholic schools but there were so many questions and gaps that I had to dig deeper into, as It seemed much information beyond events, names and dates provided that were essential to glean a deeper understanding was inaccessible, overlooked or somewhat… supressed.
GRP had a picture of Pres. Roxas during WW2 which led to a discussion (almost heading towards an argument) with my SO who is an american, about why japan was given reparations to rebuild after the war and why manila was neglected even if it wasn’t nuked, being their main ally. Not so fast, she said… not true at all!! I was ashamed I grew up not knowing the answer to my own questioning of this! That information was not in our history classes! Perhaps I skipped class that day… we agreed to look it up, revisit and rediscover together. We now have google search at our fingertips, after all.
My SO grew up knowing that this was preposterous as her grandfather who served here during that war had told her that at the time (1947) the US$:Php currency exchange rate was in fact equal -if not in favor of the Philippines- being historically the highest producer of gold in the world that attracted spain to conquer and unjustly claim the islands after they “discovered” and named it to honor their king.. retaining it’s value even after the gold standard was abolished!!!!
What happened to that money that was only worth half it’s value for rebuilding the pearl of the orient in an agreement leasing land for 99 years that was to become the US military bases? That would have changed the sequence of events of the country for it’s rightful owners, it’s inhabitants.
Perhaps… We could…ask mar if it went into the left, right or back pocket of his ancestor and he may just say it fell out and therefore was lost due to a large hole in whichever pocket it was placed. And besides it was worth only half was it was.. no need for a wharton economic degree to figure out! Perhaps just as I, that truth was never revealed to him. Perhaps he didn’t even care to find out…
Guess the only candidate among them that brought up (recent) philippine history decieved or herstory raped, cleverly disguised as a tasteless joke that would enable him to peer into minds, (en) gauge his audience depending on if they laughed out of fear of him, or out of their own sick subconscious, or not laugh at all, being not funny at all. Did you notice what effect it had on that the ones who called him out, who fell for it was? Unconsciously voted for gabriela for party list? Showed a left leaning organisation, that they were too right leaning to be too left? How bout that tasteless disabled remark? Did it cause a similar effect? Deeper into the back pocket of our mind..No loose change, just change. Animal Magnetic Technique under stood. Hehe!
The Philippine political establishment is the Traditional Politician , who see themselves as the elites and rulers in the Philippines. Oligarchs, Hacienderos, Very wealthy business people, corrupt politicians,political opportunists, etc…
They did not feel the frustrations of the Filipino people. They cannot listen to the cries of the Filipino people…they are more interested on their own self importance.
I hope this election will kick them in their asses. That they will be awakened.
If the Filipino people could unite in such a movement…everything can be accomplished of what we want for our country to achieve…we, the Filipino people are the true Bosses…not these politicians.
i judge du30 based on the following numbers: 1,424 documented cases of murder, unsolved and attributed to the DDS via circumstantial evidence or by direct testimony by alleged participants. 132 victims were minors. dozens were cases of mistaken identity, ergo were innocent.
does the life of one not count for anything, just because he wasn’t of a demographic segment worth noting?
jr,
“i judge du30 based on the following numbers: 1,424 documented cases of murder, unsolved and attributed to the DDS via circumstantial evidence or by direct testimony by alleged participants. 132 victims were minors. dozens were cases of mistaken identity, ergo were innocent.”
I call that a very impressive resume for someone who is about to engage in a war against a very corrupt system.
Aeta
Don’t try to prove to everybody that the reason why you can’t is that nobody could. It’s no excuse. You can break the tradition by being the first person to make it happen!