Self-anointed disente Filipinos were aghast with what they described as the balasubas (uncouth) behaviour of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte as he delivered his second State of the Nation Address (SONA) last Monday. The alluring Senator Risa Hontiveros, one of Duterte’s chief critics in the Senate sported her hottest resting bitch face (RBF) which she kept locked on in a show of passive-aggressive contempt for the president over much of the session. The holier-than-thou Twitterati of the Opposition cringed and whinged over “live tweets” throughout, remaining glued to the tube despite their pain. Trending wannabes kept score on a SONA bingo sheet the results of which they later published in memes showing how many cusses and mentions of “drahhggsz” they chalked up over those two hours of cringe.
If there was anything significant that the Duterte Show achieved, it was in demonstrating just how irrelevant the old guard of the disente crowd had become. In essence, Duterte drove a clattering jeepney right into Congress and onto the screens on which Filipinos’ eyeballs were glued for two hours and reminded everyone who the Filipino really is.
| SUPPORT INDEPENDENT SOCIAL COMMENTARY! Subscribe to our Substack community GRP Insider to receive by email our in-depth free weekly newsletter. Opt into a paid subscription and you'll get premium insider briefs and insights from us. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter, GRP Insider! Learn more |
Hold that thought for a moment and consider The Jeepney; erstwhile symbol of Filipino “ingenuity” and persistent cultural icon. They may now be regarded as anything but a symbol of “ingenuity” in the normal sense of that word but they remain the same unfortunate Filipino cultural icon. Jeepneys still rule Philippine roads with impunity, spewing corrosive fumes, flouting every road rule, and fouling up traffic flow. By virtue of their sheer price-crushing numbers, they hold the public transport industry hostage and attract politicians’ pandering virtually assuring their continued reign as the Philippines’ King of the Road.
If one needs a sweeping archetype of the average Filipino, look no further than the jeepney.
For as long as Filipinos tolerate the way this astounding social cancer makes a mockery of civil behaviour on the ground, Filipinos will lack any ascendancy to judge bad manners and bad behaviour above ground.
It should be no mystery why the way Duterte wears who he is on his sleeve today is so refreshing to Filipinos. It is beause he introduces consistency in what was once a fake democracy. I would have liked to have said that not one of the many presidents who sat in Malacanang actually mirrored the Filipino electorate as accurately and that Duterte broke that trend. However, in actual fact, former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada beat Duterte to that title in 1998. But the Erap presidency provides important context to the Duterte administration. Like Duterte today, Erap was relentlessly demonised by the same camp of disente Filipinos (at the time just as presumpuously calling themselves “civil society”) and, on the back of that vilification campaign, was successfully removed from office illegally. Fast forward to today and it is now easy to see with the benefit of that hindsight that the ouster of Erap is being used as the same model by the same mob to end the Duterte government prematurely.
Like Duterte, former President Erap Estrada also drove a jeepney right into the heart of Imperial Manila.
What escapes the pompous “influencers” of the Opposition who sneer at Duterte’s conduct during the SONA is that they are, in reality, sneering at the real Filipino. After all, in a democracy, elected leaders, in principle, reflect the collective character of The Vote.
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
It’s frightening to think that you might not know something, but more frightening to think that, by and large, the world is run by people who have faith that they know exactly what is going on.
Hontivirus is a kabit of Kiko Pangilinan. The woman was elected by the 2016 SMARTMAGIC and HOCUS PCOS machine… she is a running dog of the Aquino Cojuangco political axis.
Plan B , that is removing/impeaching Duterte, from the Presidency has gone wrong . The Extra Judicial killings investigation , was not successful tool to impeach Duterte. The Mad Dogs, Trillanes and Alejano, became laughing stocks of the country. The nymphomaniac Shabu Drug Cartel Queen, Leinla de Lima, is now locked up in jail. The Roman Catholic Church, lost its “magic”, to remove Duterte …
Erap Estrada did not play his political game well. This was the reason, he was removed, from office…may pagka tanga siya !
Riding a Jeepney, may be a good political show. But, Filipinos cannot hold this obsolete transport system forever. They must move to a better and more efficient transport system, if they want to progress.
Anyway, the SONA show is over. We are back in facing the real problems of the country. The Opposition and the Aquino Cojuangco political axis, are back redrawing plans to remove Duterte and put their puppet Leni “The Bobo” Robredo, as President, and grab power…
The Filipinos are back in their same old style way of life…OFWS, like me are back working our butts out to float the country’s economy…
You can tell there’s a serious imbalance with a crowd more concerned about how PC a message is delivered than the weight of the message itself. At least Pres. Digong is lucid enough to use an effective approach to reach across the classes , and it’s not that he’s unaware of proper manners. It’s simple math: a large portion of the people don’t belong to the “disente” crowd. How else do you attract support as high as 80%+ ?
It is Hontivirus …she is a “virus” of some kind, to the Philippines…
How can we claim the jeepney as ours when it was developed by the yank educated from a yank original design. The filth belching gas guzzlers that caused hundreds of deaths a year and are so hugely outdated now were only intended to suit a purpose for a moment in time . The world has moved on a lot since And with all the world’s technology this veritable dinosaur is still our claim to fame! It’s more embarrassing that we haven’t figured something better out for the modern world. We still ‘enjoy’ the jeepney because we haven’t come up with a better alternative our beleaguered nation can afford! Maybe we can claim the donkey as ours and tell the whole world how proud we are of our innovative invention. Stop embarrassing us man!
And I bet our corrupt officials ain’t so keen on the daily jeepney commute when they’ve pinched enough public money to be chauffeured around in a big yank designed 4×4. Just for the occasional press photo opportunity…
We have Hornyvirus, not Hontivirus or Hontiveros.
Let’s have future after this of my speculation: Abolition of CHR, abolition of PCGG, resurrection of Philippine Constabulary, boycotting of the yellows and critics of Marcos and Duterte, and rise of the far-right after BBM does election protest against Robredo.