Presidential candidate Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE
NOW THAT he’s ahead of the pack in the popularity surveys, Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte should concentrate on telling voters how he would go about making the country attractive to foreign investors and tourists, giving jobs to the jobless and improving the economy.
Duterte should no longer answer the charges levelled against him by Vice President Jojo Binay and former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, who are at the tailend of the surveys, because their attacks on him are cries of desperation.
READ: Binay to Duterte: Law will catch up with you; your days numbered
The charges of human rights violations against Duterte no longer stick with the majority of Filipinos who have seen what he has done in Davao City which he has made into one of the safest cities in the world.
Most people would rather see the rights of criminals and drug traffickers violated than innocent citizens hurt by lowlife.
Let’s face it: The country’s judicial system tends to favor criminals and narcotics peddlers over their victims because of the slow pace of court proceedings.
If ever criminals or drug peddlers are convicted they’re welcomed by their gangmates at New Bilibid Prison (NBP) where they live luxuriously.
In fact, at NBP and other penal colonies, inmates learn from fellow inmates how not to get caught when they’re free.
As for drug offenders, the prison walls give them protection while they manufacture drugs inside or run their syndicates by remote control.
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The charges and counter-charges between Duterte and Binay might benefit Sen. Grace Poe, who’s running second to the Davao City mayor, and Roxas.
By answering Binay’s charges, Duterte is going down to the level of his rival who has been abandoned even by his avid supporters because he flubbed the second presidential election debate in Cebu City.
READ: Poll front-runner Duterte advises Binay: Kneel down and pray
Instead, Duterte should focus on winning more voters by expounding on how he will govern the country if he wins.
There are still millions of undecided voters and it would be well for Duterte to court them.
Duterte’s advisers should pull him away from further quarrelling with Binay because it’s unproductive and unnecessary.
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P-Noy says polls mean people are ‘confused’—headline.
No, Mr. President, people are not confused; they just don’t like your man Roxas because he doesn’t have charisma.
Because of Roxas’ unpopularity with the masses, his running mate, Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, doesn’t shine as much as she should.
Robredo’s virtues—her humility and compassion for the poor—have not been highlighted because they are covered by Roxas’ unpopularity.
If Leni’s husband, the late Interior Secretary and former Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo, were alive today he would be a hands-down winner for the presidency.
READ: Roxas on Jesse Robredo: He showed us how to lead
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The Wong Chu King Foundation celebrated its 26th anniversary recently by turning over its various finished projects to local officials of Cagayan province.
In Barangay Calaoagan, Piat town, the foundation handed over the second phase of the community’s water system to Mayor Carmelo Villacete and Barangay Capt. Roel Baingan.
The foundation’s executive director, Alexander Wongchuking, also passed on to authorities the extension of Our Lady of Piat chapel they built inside Camp Tirso Gador, the provincial police headquarters in Tuguegarao town.