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Herbie Gomez

I LIKE the way Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte promises the moon and the stars to the Filipino voters. And I like the way his fans are cheering for him.

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By “like,” I mean entertained and amused that the presidential candidate thinks there’s a sticker on every Filipino’s forehead that reads “I’m stupid.” Admittedly, some actually have it on their foreheads, and many of them are the type who actually cross the street without looking both ways whenever they are online.

Take, for instance, Duterte’s pronouncement during the Jan. 20 #TheLeaderIWant forum of Rappler where he stated: “If I become president, there’s no such thing as bloodless cleansing. I propose to get rid of the drugs between three to six months.”

Big words. But how?

According to the Rappler report, “bloodless cleansing,” for Duterte, means “armed confrontation,” and not violation of human rights. “… Almost invariably they have weapons, lethal weapons to fight it out.”

Duterte then added that all the criminals killed under his watch fought back.

The only way for “no such thing as a bloodless cleansing” (read: bloody) to take place is if law enforcers create situations that would result in “armed confrontations.”

To create this scenario, law enforcers across the country would have to 1) be selfless and willing to stick their neck out, and 2) provoke.

So, are we to expect shootouts left and right in every barangay in the country during the first three to six months in the event of a Duterte presidency in order to get rid of the drug menace?

The irony is that Davao’s City Anti-Drug Abuse Council (Cadac) was reported to have expressed concern over the significant increase in the supply of illegal drugs entering the city and being sold underground. That was in 2012 or just four years ago. What does that mean? It means that voters are being sold a myth because in order for the supply to increase and be sold underground in a city, there has or had to be some kind of an organization.

Three to six months. Yeah, right. Promise us Pluto, too.

I have always wondered how the assertion that the word “destiny” as something not invented by the human mind can be demonstrated.

I mean, if it’s Duterte’s destiny to become President, then why campaign in the first place? If there is such a thing as destiny, and a politician has been destined of lead a nation, no amount of campaigning by his rivals can stop him from becoming President. He can just sit down and relax in Davao, and allow “destiny” to do all the work for him.

So I ask the superstitious to prove their assertion that “destiny” is on the side of Duterte. The burden of proof lies on the shoulder of the people who make the assertion, and not on those who question such claim.

The word “destiny” connotes a plan and a planner. Who is this planner, may I ask, and how did the partisans acquire this special ability to know the plan of this planner?

If the man wins, it would only prove that his political strategy and the factors at the time of the election worked in his favor, but not “destiny.”

If the presidency belongs only to the “destined,” as asserted, then the presidency of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. should be proof that this planner has a very lousy plan. Some plan, huh.

This “destiny” trash reminds me of  the Marcos propaganda movie “Iginuhit ng Tadhana” in 1965 that starred Luis Gonzales as the dictator-to-be and Gloria Romero as Imeldific. Stupid people actually bought the crap.

Stop hallucinating. A confluence of factors will dictate the outcome of the May elections just as how it has always been.

“Destiny” is not even an opinion. It is merely wishful thinking. Destiny, my foot.

Pastilan.

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