While in a grocery store, I overheard an elderly lady complaining about President Duterte’s “war on drugs.” In reaction, another senior citizen commented: “Well, we, the Filipino people, voted for him, so we are to blame for that.” The lady replied, “Yes, we voted for him, now we regret it, although I myself did not vote for him.”
Silently I agreed: “We, the people,” voted for Mr. Duterte, since I am part of the people. But I, too, did not vote for him as I saw him morally unfit to lead the country. Later on, I got to thinking: Is it correct to say, “we, the people,” voted for Mr. Duterte?
So, I checked the internet for the final 2016 presidential election results and got the following: Rody Duterte—15,970,018 or 38.6 percent of the total votes; Mar Roxas—9,700,382 or 23.4 percent; Grace Poe—8,935,733 or 21.6 percent; Jojo Binay—5,318,249 or 12.9 percent; and Miriam Santiago—1,424,521 or 3.9 percent. In other words, the combined votes for the losers constituted 61.3 percent of the total votes cast versus Mr. Duterte’s 38.6 percent.
Now, is it not more appropriate to say, “We, the people, did not vote for Mr. Duterte?” For is it not that the “majority” is at least 50 percent of the votes plus one?
President Duterte and his followers had better remember that. This will not change anything, but they better realize that, despite winning the election, they are still the minority.
ROCKY B. DENOGA