Digong

I met President Duterte when he was mayor of Davao City in 1992. At that time he gave all out support to the peace and reconciliation initiatives between the RAM-SFP-YOU and the Philippine Government. He gave the same to all rebels from left to right of the political spectrum, separatists included...all branded terrorists by the government. To Duterte, they were all Filipinos. I know. I was one of them and I was in the middle of talks between the government and rebel forces. Digong was more than a gracious host. His support included seconding the best and the brightest of young professionals from Davao who volunteered in pushing the peace advocacy between all parties and forces at war with the government. I was amazed with how he could inspire a younger generation to pick themselves up, march into uncharted waters, and fashion a plan that leads to a common ground. Digong had one common ground. We are all Filipinos.

Those kids are leaders today.

The Digong Duterte I met in 1992 is still the same man I am privileged to meet today as President of the Republic. Still humble, candid and generous with banter and humor who listens to the small folk. Still with a potty mouth. The man is often misunderstood yet I know so many who after meeting him discover that beneath the veneer of a tough, no-nonsense, iron-fisted, cursing leader is a man sensitive to the plight of those who have less in life. He calls a spade a spade.

Digong is far from perfect. He does not fit the stereotype of the well dressed, Makati Business Club type executive. He does not have the credentials of an Ivy League educated scion of the elite. He does not speak the language of the perfumed class. He does not dress the way presidents do. My gad, he was not even wearing socks when we met with him in Malacanang.

The fire that rages in him carries the temperament of a leader who is in touch with his mortality and does not care for greatness nor honors. He wants to lift our people out of a pit that has offered nothing but an endless cycle of hope and empty promises for thirty years - the fruit of a faux revolution that has spawned institutionalized corruption, organized crime and the entrenchment of the power elite. He may fail and he knows it but he will die trying.

I hope and pray for his health and that he shall not falter in his mission.

P.S. His after shave is Mennen Skin Bracer.

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