On Target: This country needs a forceful leader

As I write this column, I am aware that I might be trying to force an issue that has already become moot after Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte announced he is definitely not running for President.

But millions of his supporters—including this writer, of course—are not losing hope that he will eventually change his mind.

He’s our only hope for this country to become disciplined and step out of its miserable, basket-case condition.

Our people need discipline.

And the only way is for us to be disciplined is to have a strong leader like Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, who led his country from poverty to first world status.

The only leader who is capable of disciplining us as a people is Rody Duterte because he has a proven track record.

Davao City is practically crime-free and very progressive because its residents are disciplined.

I cannot cite all of his achievements in Davao City without sounding repetitive and redundant.

The other candidates for the presidency—newly resigned Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, Vice President Jojo Binay and Sen. Grace Poe—cannot hold a candle to Duterte in terms of governance.

Roxas, as secretary of the interior and local government and chair of the National Police Commission (Napolcom), wasn’t able to rid the Philippine National Police of bad eggs.

How can we expect Roxas to discipline the entire country if he failed to put in order a teeny-weeny fraction of the population?

Binay, as mayor of the country’s premier city, Makati, allegedly robbed his constituents blind.

If the accusations are true, how can we expect Binay to instill discipline in Filipinos when he cannot even control his urge to make money the easy way?

How can we expect the same of Poe when she defended a religious group that recently created chaos on the streets?

Am I advocating a martial law-style of discipline for our people like that imposed by Ferdinand Marcos from 1972 up to 1986?

Yes, but without an Imelda Marcos who led Ferdinand and the country to perdition.

The Philippines was crime-free and on its way to becoming a first world nation in the first two years of martial law.

It was Imelda’s greed for power, which Marcos could not control, that nullified the gains of martial law.

Imelda reportedly held him by the neck after she caught him having an affair with Hollywood actress Dovie Beams.

Eventually, Marcos got infected by his wife’s ways and so became a tyrant.

Although Duterte is a certified womanizer like Marcos, he has no Imelda behind him.

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This administration’s “daang matuwid” (straight path) slogan is mere rhetoric.

The “no-take” policy applies only to the opposition and not to President Noynoy’s allies.

After the allegedly anomalous acquisition of P1.2 billion worth of refurbished but defective Air Force helicopters was exposed, the contract was canceled.

But the condemned choppers have been clandestinely shipped into the country from their suppliers in the United States!

Apparently, top officials at the Department of National Defense (DND) who were behind the contract had already received their kickbacks from the American supplier and so couldn’t back out of the deal.

The DND officials had to ram the rotten deal down the Air Force’s throat because the American supplier might start talking.