In the months leading up to the election to determine the next President of the Philippines, some candidates are raising their profiles while others are losing their appeal among voters. At first glance Rodrigo (Rody) Duterte would seem not to be the right president for a country in which the human rights of citizens are violated more often than they are respected. The popular mayor of Davao City, and reluctant candidate for President of the Philippines, has built his reputation on a zero tolerance for crime and the people who commit it, no matter the circumstances. For years he has punished people who have broken laws with a vengeance resembling that of a sheriff exercising vigilante justice in a frontier town of the Wild West from American history.
However, Duterte, who has been courted by Bongbong Marcos, son of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos, to form a partnership to target the two highest offices in the land, President and Vice President of the Philippines, also has built his reputation on a compassion for the people. He has demonstrated not only an awareness of but also a commitment to address the plight of the Philippine masses, who have suffered for as long as anyone can remember at the hands of an elite composed of a few families. At least in other countries of Southeast Asia, such as Malaysia, the entrenched oligarchy has taken responsibility for delivering a respectable level of socioeconomic development to its people.
Duterte recognizes the vicious cycle of poverty in which the people of the Philippines find themselves trapped. The down-to-earth mayor of Davao City has pointed to the high rate of taxes which people are forced to pay but from which they see no benefits, such as in the form of improvements to basic infrastructure, as these monies instead are stolen by officials to enrich themselves and their families. If he were to become President of the Philippines, Duterte most likely would be the one leader who could enact legislation to bring real and meaningful change to citizens of the Philippines.
Duterte, say people, is a man of the people. And it is clear that the people of the Philippines want to vote for him. He just has to file the necessary documentation to become an official candidate. He has until the 16th of October to make his decision. No doubt the mayor of Davao City, the capital of Mindanao, the southernmost of the three principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, would carry his home turf in any election, at any time. But the charismatic leader has broad appeal. "If Duterte does not run, then I will not vote," said a taxi driver in Quezon City, part of the National Capital Region (NCR), which also includes Manila, located in Luzon, the northernmost of the three principal geographical divisions of the Philippines. While Duterte has the potential to translate his popularity among the masses across the Philippine archipelago into his most resounding victory of public office in May of 2016, he has the potential also to alter the status quo such that some members of society fear for the future.
