Duterte pisses off public he turned on

ENOUGH already: this seemingly relentless clamor for Rodrigo Duterte to run for president. This “demand” may be big only in media and may not reflect actual public sentiment.

Duterte repeatedly said he wouldn’t run and, just before deadline, capped that with a “final” rejection, later confirmed when he filed a COC for mayor in Davao City, not a COC for president filed in Manila. Then he slammed the door once again: even if allowed by law, he wouldn’t make any substitution of positions.

He could’ve been more explicit: US politician William Tecumseh Sherman in 1884 wired the GOP national convention: “I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected.” But Duterte has been Shermanesque enough: in effect, he said, I. Will. Not. Run.

Victory is not a sure thing. Surveys suggest he could give a tough fight but, his daughter concedes, their money and machinery might not sustain it to the finish line.

Duterte’s propaganda blitz was an experiment of sorts: how to whip up public interest in a “provinciano” who was neither national celebrity nor household name.

He pulled it off all right. He made outrageous statements: from Dirty Rody “I’ll-shoot-you” stunts to threats to dismantle Congress, to personal tidbits such as the flippant claim he was beaten up by his wife, surviving only on comfort of girlfriends and Viagra.

Ironically, the same exposure of character that made him famous has made people doubt his fitness for the job.

No but yes

He said “no”; his body movements said “yes” or “maybe.” He titillated them, people who think we need a badass president: voters who see Binay a dishonest Boy Scout, Roxas a P-Noy clone, and Poe, naive and putty in a Rasputin’s hands.

Like a woman who twerks, sends the man panting, then leaves, Duterte, self-confessed womanizer, shouldn’t be annoyed by the dismay of his supporters.

You know what, he may be pissing off the public he has shrewdly turned on.