Oxford researchers cheated?



With the astounding success of the ASEAN Summit and the Philippine economic growth now surging at 6.9 percent, the administration critics are fishing for issues to degrade Pres. Rodrigo Duterte and his management team.  An opposition stalwart found one. 



Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice attempted a diatribe at the President for not doing justice to barong tagalog. Instead of steering a storm in the kettle, the congressman was subjected to endless ridicule. Reason is obvious. Erice should be the last person to chide the President for his looks can give any couturier worth his salt a big challenge. 



Then there are kibitzers who came from the blue. A failed beauty contestant tried to salvage her dignity by claiming that she is better than 80 percent of the Duterte followers. Mariel de Leon got a tsunami of disparaging remarks the most revealing of it all was that she is a "retokada". I didn't know what was that until I read it from the avalanche of posts on FB. Never mind that congressman named Baguilat. His snide remarks obviously proceeded from sheer ignorance.



And then there is this Oxford study which suddenly became a subject of interest. The article claimed that Duterte had a retinue of "keyboard army" to support his election bid. The so-called study was actually based on US-based publications which are patently critical of Duterte. Two other research students quoted him but this time added the absurd that the social media is being used to give support to Duterte's war on drugs and ostensibly extra-judicial killings.



The vicarious piece must have been anchored on the mindset that only the filthy rich can win in the Philippines electoral contest. This is seen on the allegation of the Oxford "table researchers" that Duterte pays members of his "keyboard army" USD2,000 per month! The nitwits must be referring to the opposition propaganda machinery. 



The claim is simply absurd as it is ridiculous. Indeed there were countless of individuals and even groups that made use of the social media to express their support for Duterte. At the height of the election campaign mainstream media, including their columnists, gave very little space for Duterte's stories. The biggest television network in the country even refused to accommodate Duterte's election advertisement even as payment for the placements had been collected. Indeed the popular notion was that Duterte will not run because he does not have the wherewithals. Then there was this belittling insult that being from the boondocks, as his critics branded him, he will never make it in the big league that only the candidates of the NCR-based oligarchy can qualify. They are actually correct in as far as wealth and social stature of Duterte is concerned. Duterte resides in a low cost subdivision and while he inherited a couple of millions from the sales of properties of his late parents much of these had been spent for the education of his sons and daughter. He lives a frugal life and that is to everybody's knowledge in Davao City where he was mayor.



But it is his manifest destiny to become President. There were intimate friends who, without the permission of Duterte, pooled as a few million pesos as a starter. Starter means finding out whether the Mayor is popular enough nationwide since part of the centerpiece of his program is war on drugs, crime and federalism. The mayor was not even mentioned or included in earlier surveys of probable presidential bets. Oxford wise guys should have taken note that while Duterte was on a super roadshow for his Federal Movement, his intimate friends, to include Sonny Dominguez, Jess Dureza, Jun Evasco, Manny Pinol among others were actually evaluating the impact of Duterte on his audience. I managed to attend a few of these and I must say it was always characterized with intoxicating accolades. In an open forum after his speech before the top executives of Asia in Makati City, known to be the turf of leading presidential bet VP Jojo Binay, a lady executive pleaded on her knees as she urged Duterte to run for President.



Yes, the number of Duterte supporters in the social media evolved from just mere comments and few posts done in broken English and in the vernacular. This simply indicates the huge army of supporters from the grassroots not only from within the Philippines but from the overseas Filipino workers. This is a phenomenon unprecedented in an electoral derby and thank you FACEBOOK and thank you Mark Zuckerberg for the space. Oxford researchers should have made a spectacular thesis if it did a serious job on how a penniless man from the boondocks of Mindanao got elected. 



Duterte had a "KEYBOARD ARMY" no doubt but none of the likes of paid syndicated propagandists which the Oxford study cited. There is something more which the geniuses in Oxford missed. Aside from the fact that Duterte cannot countenance a naturalized Filipino running for President there is another well-kept secret, which I will divulge here, that encouraged Duterte decide to run. As we all knew, Mayor Duterte did not file his candidacy on the last regular day of filing certificates of candidacy which was on October 16, 2015. But something along the way happened. The commission on election informed Martin Dino a PDP candidate that he might be disqualified. Insulted, he withdrew giving PDP an option to field a substitute candidate. Around that time, the front runner candidates were busy conducting surveys. Among the horrific results revealed by their surveys was that Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte topped in all 19 towns and cities of the National Capital Regjion except in Makati where Binay leads but with a slight edge over Duterte. This vital info leaked to the Duterte camp and the buzz was on again.

In the Philippine electoral derby it is a given that he or she, who takes NCR, conquers all. On December 10, 2015, Duterte filed his certificate of candidacy as a substitute candidate and the nation celebrated in grand euphoria. He went on to win decisively despite all the desperate move to manipulate the results via the Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machine. The support of the keyboard cavalry never waned. Oxford, with its obstinate prejudice and penchant for table research and surveys, will never accept this one great moment in the Philippines electoral process. Some of their fellows cheated with their facts.