Digong in the eyes of Sara and Baste
Sara Duterte-Carpio, with brothers Sebastian and Paolo Duterte. INSTAGRAM PHOTO
DAVAO CITY—He was not always within reach but he certainly was no absentee father when his children were growing up.
Both Sara Duterte-Carpio, this city’s incoming mayor, and youngest son Sebastian consider President-elect Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte no less of a father.
Duterte, who served as mayor of this city for more than 22 years, never missed attending his daughter’s recognition day, Sara recalled.
READ: Inday Sara Duterte pays tribute to ‘Digong’: Education is everything
Sebastian, on the other hand, said the elder Duterte was a strict disciplinarian.
“Baste,” as he is more commonly known, particularly recalled a bad morning as a Grade 2 student when his prized damang (spider) was nowhere to be found.
“I was crying because I couldn’t find my spider,” said Baste, unaware that the creature has been freed by their househelp. “My crying woke my father. He called me to his room and hit me with his belt.”
Nocturnal dad
Baste said his father, known as a nocturnal mayor, did not want to be disturbed in the morning because he has a hard time sleeping at night.
“Besides, he was tired working from afternoon to dawn,” Baste said, referring to some nights when his father would drive a taxi around the city just to see what’s going on.
But he also recalled an amusing incident involving the plaques that his father had gathered over the years.
Baste said he made a haul of three sacks of bronze he wrenched from the plaques and sold them to a local junk shop.
When he saw the ransacked plaques, the austere father shook his head in amusement.
Baste’s idol
“I thought he will get mad,” said Baste, who eventually sustained his fascination by opening a junk shop in Davao City.
He said their life as a family was “not necessarily a feel-good story but he has no ill feelings against his father.”
“He is my idol,”Baste said, a statement that had made his tough-talking father teary-eyed during the thanksgiving party in Cebu. “There are others who are already contented with the love from their friends and family but for him fulfillment means his job. He wants to accomplish something that would benefit everyone.”
READ: Baste Duterte delivers emotional speech at Cebu thanksgiving party
No pressure
Now a father to a 5-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son, Baste loves to see his children fall asleep on the chest of Digong.
“He calmly talks to them, telling them to be a good person when they grow up,” he said.
Sara said her father place an extremely high value on education but he did not pressure them to be on top.
“Education is everything,” Sara recalled her father saying, sounding almost like a broken record.
On social media, she posted a photo of her father pinning a ribbon on her during her school’s recognition day. Sara wrote, “That is me and Digong.”
“He never missed my school’s recognition day because he always wanted to be the one to pin my ribbons and medals,” Sara posted on her Facebook and Instagram accounts during the height of the presidential campaign to show the soft side of the tough-talking mayor.
She said her father did not really pressure them to excel but he was proud of their achievements.
If ever she took home an award, he would consider it a bonus, she said.
‘Love-hate relationship’
Sara also recalled one late evening on her third year at San Beda Law school when she was having a hard time with one of her subjects.
“I wanted to have a good cry,” she posted on Facebook. “I did not call Mama because I did not want her to worry.”
She said all she wanted was to talk to a lawyer, and ended up calling her father although she admitted rarely talking to him because of their “love-hate relationship.”
“I can imagine Digong’s surprise when told by his aide that I asked for him to call me,” she said.
But when she heard his voice on the phone, she couldn’t speak. “Every word disappeared in the surge of emotions,”she said. “His first question was, ’Asan ka (Where are you)?’”
Then, Sara recalled “howling like a wounded wolf,” which alarmed her father.
“There was silence at the other end of the phone before he asked me, ‘Buntis ka (Are you pregnant)?’”
Sara laughed and couldn’t stop herself from laughing.
“Nabuang ka (Are you going crazy)?” her father asked.
Thinking her father might be thinking she was drunk, she caught her breath and said, “Naglisod ko sa akong (I’m having a hard time with) Wills and Succession.”
She recalled hearing the exasperation in the voice of her father. “The answers are not in your tears,” he said. “Go back to your books!”
She said that was all she needed. “Not comforting words, no baby bunny stories,” she said.
Later, she said she heard from somebody that Digong cried upon learning that she passed the bar examinations. TVJ
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