If Davao Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte is elected president of the Philippines, one of the things he will do is change of the name of the Lapu-Lapu fish to Magellan. Digong Duterte hates that the Philippines’ first hero is honored by naming a variety of garoupa or grouper fish after him.
Correcting historical inaccuracies will be one of the three hallmarks of a Duterte presidency. The two others are: peace and order and a corruption-free governance. Duterte spoke for more than an hour before the Rotary Club yesterday.
What’s Duterte’s beef with Magellan? The mayor is aghast that history books credit the Portuguese explorer for having “discovered” the Philippines.
In reality, he recalls, more than 100 years before Magellan came to the Philippines, Mindanao was a thriving region with Islam as their religion, meaning Filipinos existed before the foreign invaders came. So they could not have been “discovered.” According to Wikipedia, Islam came to the Philippines in the 14th century (1380) with the arrival of Muslim traders from the Persian Gulf. So when Magellan “Christianized” the Visayas, the colonization could not have included Mindanao.
In fact, Magellan never reached Mindanao. He was killed by the chieftain of Mactan, in Visayas, central Philippines, Rajah Lapu-Lapu. It was a one-sided battle, less than 100 men vs the more than 1,000 of Lapu-Lapu. So complete was the defeat of Magellan the native cut his body into pieces. His remains were never found. The victory of Lapu-Lapu on April 27, 1521 at Mactan Island is the first recorded triumph by any Oriental against a western colonizer.
Duterte wants a Lapu-Lapu Day in the same way there is a Rizal Day and a Bonifacio Day. The day could be April 27.
Duterte is aghast that Lapu-Lapu is honored by historians by naming a fish after him. If the mayor had his way, it should be the other way around. The fish should be named after Magellan, so that we can relish eating Magellan escabeche, pritong (fried) Magellan, or even sinigang Magellan.
The Magellan-Lapu-Lapu rivalry provides a colorful historical backdrop to Duterte’s first anchor program, federalism. Before launching his presidential campaign, in early 2015, the mayor had gone around the country on listening tours to promote federalism. The idea caught fire and so did the notion that Duterte should run for president to give federalism flesh and blood.
If you believe surveys, Duterte has a strong chance to be president. He is consistently among the top three choices of voters.
People love Duterte for the thing he is notorious for—his extreme prejudice towards criminals. Dubbed “The Punisher” by an international magazine, the mayor made Davao one of the world’s five safest cities (numbeo.com), thanks to his no-nonsense approach towards criminality, particularly drugs. “In this country,” he gripes, “obedience to the law is optional.”
I understand Duterte is also severe on graft and red tape. Engineering permit, business permits, electrician’s certificate and other clearances must be issued in 72 hours or three days. Beyond that, his subalterns must explain to the mayor why. “I have to close the spigots,” he told Rotarians.
As president, he says, all projects started during his presidency, including major infra and lesser projects, must be finished within six years, the term of a president. All paperwork must be finished in 60 days.
President Duterte will employ technocrats like his classmate and tycoon Sonny Dominguez, their valedictorian in elementary school, and Perfecto Yasay, the former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Duterte will also employ generals, retired and active, although he will reduce their number in both the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police. PNP has 148 generals. About 45—the best and brightest, will do, he says. One thing good about generals. They take orders and they know how to shoot. They are easy to organize into killer squads. “You have to pay for your crime,” he tells criminals and scalawags.
Duterte thinks that a strongman rule will curb criminality and the insurgency, leading to peace and order which then will attract investors. He warns “we must finish the [Muslim] insurgency, [or] we will never, never have peace.”
Investments will improve infra, create jobs, and help reduce poverty. He hates contractualization of labor, the system whereby workers are given contracts only good for five or six months, and renewed every five or six months thereafter until perpetuity.
Duterte thinks he can stop corruption. He will do away with PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel), DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program, the new name of pork barrel), and livelihood projects (the front for pork releases) because people don’t like it. He will give higher salaries for congressmen and senators, like P2 million or P3 million a year to discourage them from stealing.
As to his frequent cursing (putang *na!), he asks for understanding. Behind the curses, he implies, is an impatience with lingering and gnawing problems of the nation—poverty, unemployment, crime, corruption, disunity.
Can Duterte solve these problems? The mayor makes no promises. He asks that he has a record as mayor of 22 years of Davao. “Davao is my exhibit A,” says the former prosecutor of 10 years.
Duterte seems to believe that governance and politics are all local. And that will propel him to the highest post in the land.
Human rights? The mayor says you cannot apply the US or European standards to the Philippines. “We are a country of tribes,” he says.
A tribal chief killed a European colonizer 495 years ago. Magellan vs. Lapu-Lapu? It’s no contest. Duterte must win his fight against rivals from imperial Manila. It’s a difficult fight but one not necessarily unwinnable.