Duterte's hatred for Roxas
ALTHOUGH I have judged a few Miss something contests, I am not big on beauty pageants. But curiosity got the better of me when I heard the girls in the living room scream that Miss Philippines and Miss Colombia were the last women standing in the Miss Universe pageant that was showing live on television from Las Vegas yesterday morning.
The excited conversation quickly vanished, however, when host Steve Harvey announced that Miss Colombia won. Then it came back--accompanied by shrieks this time-- just as quickly when Harvey said that there had been a mistake and that in fact, the new Miss Universe was Miss Philippines.
On the TV screens, meanwhile, the two ladies looked perplexed. It must have been embarrassing for both of them, particularly Miss Colombia, who was then wearing the crown. For a while, she must have lost sense of what was happening.
It was an honest mistake, said American comedian Harvey as he apologized to both ladies. To that I would like to add, it was a very stupid one, too. But then what can you expect from someone working for the goofy Donald Trump?
*** Last week, at the height of their quarrel, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte declared that if he and Grace Poe should be disqualified from joining the presidential race, he'd rather campaign for Vice President Jejomar Binay than for his friend-turned-mortal-enemy, Mar Roxas.
The Comelec has since given Duterte the go-signal while Poe's fate ironically continues to hang in the balance. Ironic because it was Poe, or more particularly, the prospect of the country having an Ameri- can president that, Duterte said, made him decide to run despite his earlier repeated disavowal of any interest in the presidency.
His choice of default candidate was less about liking Binay than hating Roxas, it seems. Addressing the Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer, the mayor said in a television interview: “I do not have any respect for you… Kapag na- disqualify si Grace, na- disqualify ako, I will campaign for Binay. Binay na ako then I will tell the Filipino people why you should not be president.”
In other words, he would rather have for president, next to himself, an American (his own description) and the candidate who is accused by his (Duterte's) teammate, Alan Peter Cayetano, of being very corrupt. But never Roxas.
Never. Such is his hatred for the man that he even refuses to debate with him. Duterte had earlier warned his rivals to get ready to debate with him but apparently Roxas is not in his crosshairs. You're far too low in the presidential preference surveys to waste my time on, the PDP-Laban substitute candidate is telling the LP man. I wonder if he would he be as quick to say the same thing to another tailender, Miriam Defensor Santiago.
Incidentally, what Duterte just did or is doing to Roxas is eerily similar to how Binay treated Sen. Antonio Trillanes early this year. At the height of the Makati corruption issue, the vice president had dared the senator, his most vociferous critic, to debate with him. The latter accepted the challenge but not quick enough, it turned out, to prevent Binay from changing his mind. I don't debate with the inferior, he airily declared.
Anyway, let's hope that Duterte will change his mind and not be picky with his debate opponents. I'm sure he's not scared of Roxas, whom he pooh-poohs as a fake Wharton graduate. Surely, they don't train their economics underclassmen in argumentation and debate at the UPenn as assiduously as we do our freshmen pre-law students in the Philippines.
Everyone has a story to tell, says the poem, “Desiderata.” Yes, even survey tailenders. Let's ask them to tell and then validate theirs, Digong.
His choice of default candidate was less about liking Binay than hating Roxas, it seems