Presidential frontrunner and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte gestures as he arrives at the voting precint to cast his vote at Daniel Aguinaldo National High School in Davao City, on the southern island of Mindanao on May 9, 2016. / AFP PHOTO / NOEL CELIS
Behind his tough image and the expletives is a very sincere man, his friend and counsel Atty. Vitaliano Aguirre appealed to the public.
“He is really sincere in fixing our country. You have to look behind that foul language,” Aguirre said in a phone interview.
Aguirre, a lawyer, classmate and fraternity brother of Duterte way back at the San Beda College of Law, said they formed a “Brotherhood for Duterte” which helped to convince the mayor to run for higher office and supported his bid.
READ: Duterte: ‘No’ means ‘maybe’
He said their journey was hard because they are pitted against candidates with money, big organization, and machinery.
“What we have is a sellable candidate, popular candidate. Our strategy is volunteerism,” he said, pointing out that the people behind Duterte’s success are all volunteers.
“We have no funds. We even shelled out our personal money,” he said. Aguirre said there were a few donations, but at the last minute when Duterte started going up the surveys.
READ: Volunteers boost Duterte-Cayetano campaign amid limited machinery
He added that up to the last minute, they even had problems with poll watchers because they were only able to field poll watchers to 30 percent of the polling precincts.
Aguirre said they cannot afford to hire people to act as their watchers.
“We give them a simple token for their work, but that’s it,” he said.
Aguirre said he will be the head of Duterte’s national canvassing team. The team will be composed of 15 to 20 lawyers. He said he is already looking for volunteers. JE
