The goose and the gander
There is a perceptible influx of people who visit Davao City and those whom I have the chance to encounter have distinct purpose so different from each other. I suspect that it has something to do with the vulgar language that our irrepressible Pres. Rodrigo Duterte is now famous for or to check on the veracity of the now infamous Edgar Matobato whose story is now crumbling into a heap of prevaricated tales.
Last week I was interviewed by three foreign correspondents who seemed to be perplexed by Duterte’s free flowing expletives. I suspect that they believed the many shocking hyperboles that Duterte recites to spice his cusses. But it is good that they flew all the way to Davao City to get to the bottom not only about the fairy tales that Matobato dished out on worldwide TV. In fact I was surprised to see that before the Senate Committee hearing on extrajudicial killing, which was then chaired Sen. Leila De Lima, her witness Matobato already gave his horrific account of how, as a member of the Davao Death Squad, he personally executed over 50 people and helped in the execution of over 1,000 others.
The foreign journalists asked my side of the story. I told them that DDS was merely ghost soldiers conceptualized by INP Regional Commander Dionisio Tan-gatue Jr. and popularized by an anti-communist propagandist and commentator Jun Pala. That DDS even predates Pres. Corazon Aquino.
It is not surprising therefore to see them with quizzical brows. They heard their story first from De Lima who was too childish to believe that DDS exists and from Manilans who were oblivious to the events that happened between mid-seventies and up to 1986 when Davao City was eventually freed from the clutches of the radical communist insurgency. Add to that the script recited by Matobato and you have a mishmash of information that can impact on one’s sanity. Look what is happening to Sen. De Lima. She was hysterical at one point even President Duterte asked her to take a rest.
Aside from the American journalists, I had this encounter with a group of Chinese businessmen who came to Davao City dressed like ordinary tourists. Their questions are too different from the western journalists for they are more focused on infrastructure projects. I was surprised by their questions however in that they knew about the railway projects which then Mayor Rodrigo Duterte had been interested in. They asked me where will this be, how far the distance will it run. I told them a bit of educated guesstimate: about 120 kilometers from Tagum to Digos cities via Davao City. Then they asked about the proposed bridge from Davao City to Samal Island.
The Chinese who do not speak English but had an interpreter who speaks English that I can hardly understand, never touched on extrajudicial killings. I expected that they will bring out the controversial Scarborough issue but none of that.
The common interest of the two groups of people I met is only Rodrigo Duterte. But both have different impres- sion of the President. The Americans are aghast by Duterte’s penchant for cusswords which do not distinguish a US President and a UN Secretary General from a drug pusher. The Chinese are amused by Duterte’s manner of speech but put a lot of significance to the President’s preference for bilateral talks with China.
The Chinese finds Duterte’s statement a signal for opening new business and investment opportunities for them while the journalists cannot still go over their mindset that Philippines and America had been allies and how come Duterte appeared to be so angry with America.
I have no problems with my Chinese acquaintance but I assured the American journos that Duterte and the Filipino people do not hate American people. It is the US government policy that creates this friction.
I said that expletives that come out of the mouth of Duterte do not kill but have in fact caused nearly a million drug addicts and pushers to surrender to government authorities and to submit themselves for rehabilitation. Of course there are those who fought it out with the law and in the process about two innocent bystanders were killed.
I begged them to give Duterte and our country some space. Problem with American press, they dub the casualties of Duterte’s drug war victims of extrajudicial killings, while those killed by US forces are identified as “specific targets” and the millions of civilian casualties as “collateral damage”.
I said, think about why it is alright for the West to trade and invest in China and forgetting all the negative propaganda that denigrated China before and why is it now a matter of serious concern that the Philippines revisits its foreign economic and security policies that would harmonize with regional political evolution which the West had long exploited to the hilt. There is an American saying that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
The statementChinese findsa signal Duterte’sfor opening new business and investment opportunities for them while the journalists cannot still go over their mindset that Philippines and America had been allies and how come Duterte appeared to be so angry with America.