Still in that swashbuckling local mayor mindset

You guys still have it wrong, haven’t you? The man was the mayor of Davao City. The man is still the mayor of Davao City—the swashbuckling, big bike-riding, gun-toting, itchy trigger-fingered honcho roaming the streets of the city looking for victims, where he held sway over the police, the Army and populace.

He still is the “tambay” drinking with his fellow “tambay”, trading banter and jokes; and he who insinuates he is popular with the girls the most is king. He still thinks he is the mayor of Davao, which explains the fact that he would spend most of his time there. How many times a week does he fly to his city? At what and whose expense?

This explains why, in one of his early press conferences as President, he wolf-whistled one female reporter, an act unheard of from any public figure, much less the President of the land. He loves to regale his audience with the same sexist remarks and jokes: “pusila sa bisong,” shoot them in the vagina; he who thinks nothing of asking a woman, married to a citizen of the country he is visiting, to kiss him on the lips, his sycophants meanwhile dismissing it as a “mere peck on the lips.”

He forgets he is the President of the country when he insults international leaders and badmouths just about anyone that displeases him. Instead of accepting criticism as one of the bedrocks of a democracy, he lashes back at them: senators, journalists, the political opposition, even calling one Supreme Court justice “stupid” for disagreeing with his views. He would imprison everyone who would talk of impeachment until he was told it was not a crime to do so.

You wonder why our waters are encroached upon by Chinese military and civilian vessels without permission? Well, just like his “verbal” permission for Chinese fishing boats to fish in our waters, who is to say he did not do the same to those military vessels? Remember the Chinese military aircraft that visited Davao City—twice? For what real purpose, no one knows to this day. The silence from Malacañang is deafening.

He is still His Honor, the Mayor; he has often repeated that that is how he would like to be known. Problem is, no one caught on to the fact that he meant it quite literally.

ROBERT ALVAREZ HYNDMAN,
[email protected]