Endorsement or polite gesture? Don’t insult the President

Three days after it happened, President Duterte’s raising of former Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama’s hand continues to be the talk of the town. Did thePresident in effect reverse himself and admit that he was wrong in tagging Rama as a drug protector? Or are we, including Rama himself, guilty of over reading, of putting undue meaning to a simple gesture of courtesy?

The funny thing is that these questions could have been avoided if everyone had followed the script. A highly placed source said the organizers wanted the rally to focus only on Duterte and his senatorial candidates. There was supposed to be no hand-raising for local candidates, the only concession given them being the opportunity to be photographed with Duterte.

The arrangement made sense. The campaign period for local candidates does not open until late next month. More importantly, there are so many sticky issues hounding the PDP-Laban in Cebu involving warring party members who claim to be loyal to the President. The organizers wanted to keep Duterte from being caught in party intramurals.

Everything went according to plan, according to my source, until the photo-op part. The local bets were supposed to stand behind Duterte and his Senate slate but when they passed by the President, they paused to talk to their party leader. Then the hand-raising began. Duterte’s reputation as a spontaneous and unpredictable person was in full display.

Back to Rama, those who claim that he was just a lucky beneficiary of Duterte’s politeness actually insult the President. True, he did it once, raising Jinggoy Estrada’s hand during a rally only to explain that it was not an indorsement but a gesture of courtesy to a friend. But that is precisely the point. He erred on the side of being nice once and then he erred again? To commit a mistake is human but to repeat it is something else. I will not state what the “something else” is because it is unworthy to use on a President.

So unless Duterte himself says otherwise, he did endorse Rama. Without a denial or even just a clarification from the President, Rama can rightfully claim that he has been absolved, albeit impliedly, from charges that he was a drug coddler. If you consider the insults that he had to absorb and the almost personally demeaning steps that he had to take in order to reach out to the President, you can understand why he said he was on cloud nine when he was holding hands with him, even if briefly.

Lost in the brouhaha over Mike’s virtual absolution by Duterte was the fact that he was not the only one in his team whom the President endorsed. His mayoralty candidate, Edgar Labella, had his hand raised by Duterte, too, but it did not get as much attention from the newspapers because it was expected and non-controversial.

Labella has been Duterte’s choice for Cebu City mayor all along. In raising Labella’s hand last Sunday, the President was merely confirming what he said to Labella the first time the incumbent vice mayor was introduced to Duterte as the PDP Laban candidate for mayor. “I heard a lot of things about you,” the President reportedly told Labella. “You’re a good man. Keep it up.” There couldn’t have been a more ringing indorsement.

But while Duterte’s support is a tremendous boost to his candidacy, Labella remains the underdog versus the incumbent, Tomas Osmeña, who is a political virtuoso, quick to pounce on opportunities to maximize his advantage or exploit his opponent’s weakness. Rama ignored or gave little attention to this in 2016 and paid the price.

Let’s see if Labella can profit from Rama’s mistake by not repeating it.

Lost in the brouhaha over Mike’s virtual absolution by Duterte was the fact that he was not the only one in his team whom the President endorsed.