Bound for Cebu to attend the milestone of our friend Mike Dino’s dad, Norman Fulgencio (the Duterte-Cayetano campaign manager for Malabon and Navotas) got to discussing the first 45 days of the new presidency.
“Parang ang tagal nang presidente ni mayor, ano?” he quipped. To which I said, “ngayon nga lang magkakaroon ng first 50-day report para sa isang presidente.”
Norman, whose self-financed efforts in his area resulted in an astounding victory for Duterte in Liberal Party-controlled Malabon (PNoy’s first cousin, Len-len Oreta is the mayor) and even topping Binay in Navotas by more than 2,000 votes (this fishing capital is the fiefdom of Jojo’s loyalist, Toby Tiangco), then stated: “Kasi naman ang dami nang nagawa in so short a period. Every day that passes there’s a major news event”.
The common observation got both of us reminiscing about how a year ago, in 2015, most everyone we approached to support a Mindanaoan’s candidacy was met by snickers and jeers.
“Saling-pusa lang ‘yan.” “Pumu-porma lang ‘yang si Duterte, baka magsi-senador, at most ‘yan vice-president.” These were samples of common reactions, not only in Luzon, but even in the Visayas.
Then, cobbling together a few million pesos, mostly from friends who believed like us that a significant public was tired enough of the same traditional politics and the same old faces, the Duterte pre-campaign was able to fund a three-week, medium-frequency national TV ad, which ran from the last week of May to mid-June 2015. Putting together what was loose change for the other major candidates (Roxas, Binay and Poe) was so difficult that our national ad didn’t even have the necessary traction for the second-quarter publicly released surveys of Pulse and SWS.
Prior to that, there were low-budget efforts by Duterte’s Davao friends, such as some introductory regional ads that ran in March, plus a memorable “langaw” advertorial that could afford only a once or twice nightly TV exposure for a week or so. But it was “different” enough to catch public attention.
Sometime in April of 2015, we got in touch with the top brass of a “disruptive” creative agency which was used by Sen. Manny Villar in 2009-2010.
In previous campaigns, I normally worked with veteran adman Greg Garcia, but then Greg was working for his “anak,” Alan Peter Cayetano, who was at the time still assiduous on a presidential run.
I was always impressed by the quality of Villar’s infomercials even when I was working on the campaign of his main opponent, Noynoy Aquino, whose father Ninoy and Tito Doy Laurel introduced me 35 years ago to the world of politics. Providentially, although strangely weird, it was Sen. Cynthia Villar, through a common friend, who introduced us to the “disruption” creative group.
On the first meeting, they agreed to draw up a TV commercial based on the concept of a “courage and compassion” candidate. For months since I volunteered to help Duterte, I kept talking to rather skeptical publics that “character” and “compassion” would differentiate my reluctant dream candidate from the maddening crowd of would-be presidents.
Through several presidential campaigns of which I was a part of the strategy team, I maintained that national leaders must “sell” their persona based on three C’s: competence, character and compassion. Getting the voters to identify your candidate as having all three, or at least two of these qualifiers, would be essential to victory.
The “disruptors” and I agreed to define Duterte in terms of character and compassion, with competence already a “given” to a significant number of voters. Davao City, after all, was one of the best-run and best-governed cities in the country. Duterte’s outstanding character was to be defined in terms of his courage. But there is an underlying and all-encompassing raison d’etre for the “tapang,” and that is an inherent “malasakit” for the public he serves.
Besides, the competition (especially the then-leading candidate, Binay), had a compelling narrative in his 2010 VP run, thanks to my friend Greg’s “Ganito kami sa Makati, sana ganito rin sa buong bansa.” Mar Roxas, on the other hand, scored well on the “Mr. Clean” image, which predictably, his party and the president embraced as the be-all and end-all quality of a leader.
Thus was “Tapang at Malasakit,” the Duterte campaign theme, born.
Later, when Duterte and Cayetano teamed up, Greg Garcia came on board, so that essentially we had two creative groups reinforcing through succeeding permutations, the “tapang at malasakit” narrative.
“Matapang na solusyon, mabilis na aksyon.” “Change is coming.” “Tinud-anay nga kausaban” for the Bisaya publics. “Kayo ang lakas ko” as finale, with massive crowds and the Philippine flag as compelling visuals.
The rest is campaign history.
The beautiful thing about the campaign story is that we never, and the candidate himself, never, ever, strayed from the truth about his character and persona. The compelling narrative and all the sub-stories thereafter were authentic. What you see is what you will get. The people believed. They applauded this “enigma” they entrusted their future in.
Winning is the first part. Succeeding is the more difficult part, and Duterte never had any illusions about the odds he would encounter.
But examine his actions in the first 50 days, beginning from his short but stirring inaugural address he himself wrote. And throughout, see “tapang at malasakit” in full play. And always naturally, in-character, never contrived.