Ping Lacson on Duterte presidency: God help us

“May God help us!” was how reelectionist Sen. Panfilo Lacson reacted on Wednesday to the looming possibility of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte winning the presidential race and fulfilling his controversial campaign promises such as killing all corrupt officials in government.

Lacson hoped that Duterte’s statements at the Makati Business Club on Wednesday and his other equally controversial campaign promises were  “just sound bytes to get elected.”

Lacson mentioned Duterte’s to-do things when he becomes president—to kill 100,000 criminals in three to six months; to close and padlock Congress; to establish a revolutionary government; to ride a jet ski to Scarborough shoal and plant the Philippine flag and be shot by the Chinese, and now to shoot all corrupt officials and pardon all their assassins.

No to civil war

“I hope and pray that if elected, he (Duterte) won’t do what he mostly says and promises to do during this campaign  because if he does, may God help us,” Lacson said in a text message.

Lacson said he did not want the country “plunged into a civil war.”

He also noted that Duterte was not the same person he knew for more than 20 years, saying he saw the mayor then as a “soft spoken, unassuming, never arrogant” person.

“We were not really close friends but during my law enforcement days, even before my appointment as Chief of the Philippine National Police, we mutually respected, even admired each other, at least that’s how I viewed it from my own perspective,” he said.

Lacson said he would “touch base with (Duterte) to catch up whenever I visited Davao City.”