#Eleksyon2016: The pits

we wouldn’t need to go back to every man, woman, child’s basic right to life.

But alas, that is how low the discourse is. And it is fueled by the even lower blows one receives when one articulates any criticism at all against Duterte. It doesn’t matter whether you’re right or wrong, whether you make sense or not. A discussion is not going to be had.

You’re also going to be called names, and you will be threatened. They will dismiss you as a paid hack. Yes, it is as scary as it sounds.

elections, we’re not only not talking track record of service and the feasibility of programs and platforms given the state of the nation. We are also being forced to deal with the most basic right to life, because Duterte has brought it down to that level.

You are of course forced to respond to these low blows, especially when you realize that many who support Duterte are from the educated classes – people who know about justice and fairness, right and wrong. And so it bears repeating: we all have the right to live, and that is a right that no government, no leader, can strip away from any citizen. Criminals are to be brought to justice, they are to be jailed and they are to suffer within the bounds of the law, which is to say they will live in the hell that are our jails.

And in the Philippines, given the state of our jails, that really only means allowing them to live out a slow death.

The macho script

Duterte is running on nothing but a platform of peace and order, and necessarily of impunity and violence given how he has carried out this platform in Davao City. Of course those who seem to stand as his consultants would like us all to see that the more important platform he is running on is federalism as a way to achieve peace in Mindanao.

talk about peace, when he has admitted himself that he bears arms and has Even harder to take him seriously when he had warned us all that he will kill President and throw their bodies into

Sure, it sounds all macho and exciting – very action star, if you will. But that is the crux of the problem: this is not a passed. I am convinced that we killed it espouses a false sense of heroism from stock characters who know only to kill in order to survive, who respond to

In real life, things are not that simple. Even in Davao City itself, Duterte will be hard put to prove that his peace and order program is one that has worked. - mit that “the summary execution of criminals is the most effective way of crushing kidnapping and illegal drugs” ( drugs had been effectively crushed by Duterte in Davao.

The false promise

The last reported case of kidnapping

The Davao Death Squad assassinations of drug addicts started Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) was still launching operations in Davao City against illegal drugs (

One would imagine that if this program for peace and order was truly Duterte himself killed kidnappers, no one would dare kidnap anyone in his territory. The same goes for drug ad DDS execution of drug addicts, Davao - lion worth of drugs in the city (

Duterte espousing summary executions and condoning extrajudicial killings has not produced a Davao City with no crime, is already proof of the falsity of this platform’s promise.

That Davao remains as one of the poorer provinces in the country also proves that this platform of peace and order has not done much as far as delivering social services or alleviating poverty are concerned. According to in every four families is considered poor (

We might enjoy what we’re hearing from this man, but it is also all spin at this point. Because he might not be some or American girl, but all that he spews at this point is part of the macho script of false heroism that feeds the fantasy of a new nation.

Sounds familiar? Why, yes. Just like history, dictatorships repeat themselves if we let them.