The GO NEGOSYO “Meet the Presidentiables Series,” produced together with PLDT, TV5, Sta Elena Construction and Bilang Pilipino 2016, recently went into its fourth episode with no less than the highly controversial PDP-Laban standard bearer, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte. I served as a panelist once more together with fellow regulars Babe Romualdez of PeopleAsia magazine and Mon Lopez of Go Negosyo as well as Sherill Quintana of Oryspa Spa Solution, Myla Villanueva of the MDI Group, and Grace Gupana of the HalleluYAH Prophetic Global Foundation. TV5 News and Public Affairs Head Luchi Cruz-Valdez did duties once more as the moderator.
Throughout the forum I wanted to count how many times the good Mayor would cuss, but I lost track. Verily, if every cuss word uttered would translate into votes, then Mayor Duterte would really have a good headstart. Before I hurled my first question, I greeted him in Bisaya – from one Bisaya to another – and informed him that a lot of Bisayans I know are ecstatic that a Bisaya like him is running for the highest office in the land. Believe me when I say that a lot of Bisayans out there are saying it’s about time someone from the South occupied Malacañang. They argue that the North does not have a monopoly of leadership qualities.
In the course of our engagement with him I realized that he was not a mere one-dimensional candidate as oft portrayed through mass media; rather, he has a clear platform with positions on such issues as foreign direct investments, charter change, foreign policy with the US and China, agriculture, and so on. His priorities, of course, were on poverty, criminality, and corruption. We know that corruption takes two forms: one, where the perpetrator enriches herself or himself in office; and the other, more insidious kind, where certain benefits or privileges are given to cronies. It is the latter form that does more damage, in the long-term, to the economy.
From the way he tackles the policy questions thrown at him, it seems Mayor Digong has a good set of advisers. In private he has mentioned to me that he was briefed on taxation by no less than the former Prime Minister, Cesar Virata. His gesture, likewise, of apologizing to the Pope for his earlier slur, with the promise to seek guidance from The Holy See whether or not he wins the presidential race, was also acknowledged as admirable.
That isn’t something to cuss about.