Sun.Star Davao

The goose and the gander

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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.

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