Iron fist

Woke up this morning to the news that another bunch of tourists (Fil-Am family) have been abducted by suspected Abu Sayyaf terrorists from a resort somewhere in Zamboanga. I thought, that's just a few hundred kilometers away from Davao City. You rarely ever hear that shit happening there.

I've been to Davao when it was still the patriarch, Rodrigo Duterte's turn at being mayor. It was just a few years after he had cleaned house. Getting rid of the NPAs, among other scalawags from the city. I remember the human rights advocates crying murder over it. But in the end, the result was, Davao is a city, right smack in the middle of the chaos that is Mindanao, free from all the nonsense associated with Mindanao.

I remember wishing I could find a job there, if only so I can stay. Davao is what Metro Manila ought to be. Clean, orderly, no traffic. Whatever the Duterte magic was, the proof of the pudding was definitely in the eating. But to be sure, it is no secret. Rodrigo himself will tell you that that magic is the iron fist. The same iron fist, I suppose, his own daughter now wields and demonstrated on that much viewed youtube clip incident.

Of course, as to be expected from them, opinion writers, human rights advocates, every mother and her uncle, would cry foul. Respect the rule of law they all cried.

Hmmm... the rule of law...

The same rule of law used by that rich son of a former senator to get himself off the hook? The same rule of law used by Gloria and her cabal to protect themselves over all these years from prosecution? The same rule of law that freed General Garcia with half his loot intact? That rule of law?

If not that, what rule of law are we talking about here? Oh you mean the rule of law that prevented the SWAT snipers from taking the first available shot at that mad Luneta bus hostage taker? You mean that?

But oh please, do not misread me. I am all FOR the rule of law. Just not the letter of the law. But the spirit of the law. And that spirit, of course, as always is -- JUSTICE.

Sara Duterte spared Davao from bloodshed that morning. Improvised arrows have already been fired and gun shots returned before she arrived at the scene. She had asked for only 2 hours reprieve. And it is standard operating procedure anyway for such demolition operations to take place with government officials present. That these were not observed, that poor civil servant got punched in the face. Poor fellow.  

But that is the human rights violation you want to cry about? Trust me. It takes major balls and nothing less than an iron fist to keep peace in Davao. Anything less than that, and it might as well be Basilan. Go crying human rights violation there. And go lecture the Abu Sayyaf, Etta Rosales, about human rights.