Welcome to Davao City

When the Philippine electorate chose Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte President, they did it for a number of reasons. They have seen how the City metamorphosed from once dubbed as the country's "killing fields" into the most peaceful and livable city and rated as the 9th most peaceful in the world.

On the 16th of March, we will celebrate the 80th Araw ng Dabaw and beyond the splendor and pageantries that describe the event in the past. This year's festivity is infused with different flavor and fiesta atmosphere. Meaningful and significant in fact. The Mayor who transformed the city from dystopia into a virtual paradise is now President of the Republic of the Philippines.

Expect a grand euphoria of proud Dabawenyos. The first Mindanaowon to become President of the country and the city's longest reigning mayor. Unblemished despite his 23 long years of service, the only political personality who can upstage him is his own father, the venerable Vicente Duterte, the governor of the undivided province of Davao. Governor "Ite" as we call him is impeccably clean and morally upright. Mayor Digong unbending brand of discipline and bravery is from his mother Soledad. The one, we working students would refer to as "Nanay SolIng". The present City Mayor, Sara Z. Duterte-Carpio, absorbed much of what she is as a political leader from her father. But Mayor Inday, as she preferred to be called, beats her father in the art of boxing. She became an instant international celebrity for knocking sense and sensibility on a court sheriff who personally supervised the ejectment of temporary settlers despite the state of calamity declared in the city.

The Dutertes are hard acts to follow. President Duterte lives an extremely frugal life. He used to live in an old bungalow that is situated between a gated subdivision and a waterway. When a damaging flash flood almost carried away that house along with a few appliances he was forced to move to a low cost subdivision adjacent to a golf course. The receiving room in this one is too cramp and the steel chairs which I think were salvaged from the flood is comfortable enough for him. That was almost 10 years ago. I have not visited his house since then but gleaning from the pictures published by curious journalists who cannot believe the lifestyle of the new President I am of the impression that nothing much had really changed. He is still enamored to slip-on shoes. But do not believe that he cannot afford to buy socks. It's more of the difficulty wearing them while battling the bulge.

It stands to reason therefore why the economic and social elite especially in Metro Manila cannot comprehend why Duterte does not fall into the mold of politicians who indulge in lavish lifestyle and reside in guarded subdivisions as quickly as they took their oaths of office.

Those from the lower class of our society however relates to their President Digong. They clap on the Presidents "kanto boy" jokes and his unexpurgated expletives. When he promised that he will solve drug problems in the country and stop corruption in three to six months of his presidency, nearly 17-million Filipinos elected him leader. This underlines the morbid reality that the menace of drugs has crept into the people's homes assuming it hasn't entered yet. The UN rapporteur simply cannot comprehend the complex problems that drug addiction has brought into the country.

But Duterte the President underestimated the extent of the drug problems in the nation. A few days after he was sworn in and assumed office he was shocked to learn that five police generals are protectors of the drug syndicates. Few weeks later, He discovered that the distribution hub of drugs in the country is right inside the premier penitentiary which is directly supervised by the Department of Justice! What was more shocking however was that there were more barangays listed as drug infested than there drug-free. Then came the revelation that elected government officials and policemen were either drug protectors or into drug trading themselves.

His anti-illegal drug campaign shifted gears and he launched a total war on drugs. This resulted in more than 3,000 casualties and more than a million drug users and peddlers who submitted themselves for rehabilitation and training for livelihood projects.

The social elite and political oppositions along with their confessors in the bishopric squirmed at the death statistics and conveniently stonewalled the gains of the campaign which saved many young children who submitted themselves to rehab. But the poor communities who want order in their places of abode are cheering Duterte. His popularity in independent surveys would confirm this, indicating that more than twice the number of the 17-million voters who elected other presidential bets had realized Duterte was the right man after all.

The opposition tried wickedly and vainglorious attempted to denigrate President Duterte by calling him murderer and the father of the Davao Death Squad. I was drag into this issue myself when the Duterte declared on nationwide TV that I knew the whys and wherefores of DDS. I have written the facts about DDS several times in my columns. That DDS was in fact a ghost force that was conceptualized by then PC-INP Regional Commander Dionisio Tan-gatue Jr. That in truth and in fact Duterte was simply a budding lawyer appointed at the height of communist insurgency as assistant city fiscal when DDS surfaced. Because I have to buttress that story following the President's statement, I have to look for retired General Tan-gatue and get a direct statement from him. I had his statement on video owning to the creation of that phantom force. He also dismissed the crap that Duterte was behind DDS saying: "he (Duterte) has no clout, he has no clout whatsoever in those times".

Where will the statement and allegations of detained Sen. Leila De Lima and Sen. Antonio Trillanes be in the light of Tan-gatue's affirmation. Now, how will perjured witnesses Matobato and Lascañas be described and labeled? They are not ghosts and neither are they phantoms.

Duterte's entry into politics was not a walk in the park. When the CPP/NPA lost their stronghold in the ghettos of Davao City, they exited as quickly as when one wakes up from a nightmare. Crime syndicates crept into the city but the most tenacious and destructive of these was the drug syndicates. It is no secret that Duterte himself sometimes would lead campaigns against lawless elements. He was there in a raid on drug laboratory where Chinese suspects were killed in a gunbattle. He drives a taxi or his motorcycle way past midnight to conduct his own inspection of police stations and perchance a thief would board his taxi so he can deal them with. That is the leader who's got the gumption, the one with "the fire in his belly" as UP Prof. Clarita Carlos would describe.

And so welcome to Davao City's anniversary celebration! The land of the free where diverse people live in unity and respect of each other cultural diversities and religious faiths. The city once ruled by armed insurgents and criminal syndicates is now the exemplar of a peaceful, livable and progressive city in the world.

Who knows? You might have a unique opportunity to have a picture taken with the President of the Philippines. After all he has always been our prime tourist attraction.

(Mr. Jun Ledesma is a community journalist who writes from Davao City and comments from the perspective of a Mindanaoan)