Filipino sports enthusiasts, and the Filipino nation in general, are in extreme celebratory mode these days. What with the double gold medal won by top gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo in the about-to-end Paris Olympic!
It is a fate that surpasses the one when the country had its first gold medal in the Olympics courtesy of Hydiline Diaz in weight lifting. We say that the Yulo gold harvest in the Paris quadrennial sports meet could have a bigger and long lasting impact because the sport that afforded our top gymnast with the gold, is not endemic in the country. Rather, for the longest time gymnastics is some kind of past time sports in European countries and in China and Japan. And suddenly a Filipino came out to rule the sport in at least two categories.
Now the Filipinos are in awe of the fate of Yulo. We will not be surprised if some even entertain envy in their hearts. We would also be expecting that many among our youth and their parents will be pushing for gymnastics as the sport of their choice.
But as the biblical saying goes, “Many are called but only few are chosen.” We are certain that this adage will also apply to ambitious youth hoping to become the next Carlos Yulo of the country.
The lure of popularity and the money that comes with it could be the call hardest to resist. But then, walking the path Yulo has traveled will be much harder that anyone can think. Impediments are strewn along the way and once the crossroads are reached that is when the reckoning starts. Many are forced to back out of the journey.
As for Yulo’s envy-laden performance we need not add our minute congratulatory voice. For certain it will only be drowned by the multitude of national – even global – felicitations. But we are one among those who celebrate his achievement.
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Some sectors are claiming that the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. is out to destroy Davao City. Among the reasons for making such claim are the recent controversial series of changes in the police leadership in the city from the Director level down to the station commanders and some of their men.
Another is probably the perception that the Marcos, Jr.-led administration is persecuting the top religious Pastor and founder of the sect Kingdom of Jesus Christ Church Apollo C. Quiboloy who is from Tamayong, Calinan District, Davao City.
The methods applied by the police under its new regional leadership, in attempting to serve the arrest warrants on the now fugitive religious leader were claimed by the same sectors as “unacceptable” and not within the bounds of the law.
The Pastor is known for his closeness to former President Rodrigo Duterte, the city’s long-time mayor and only less than a year has become a leading critic of Marcos Jr.’s rule. He is now joined by his children in Mayor Baste Duterte, Congressman Polong, and only lately, by Vice President Sara who quit her Cabinet post as Secretary of the Department of Education.
The claim that the Marcos, Jr.’s administration is in the process of destroying Davao City, is by all means, a very serious one. It could not be interpreted otherwise but as one deliberate action to tarnish the image of the people running the city, specifically the family of the former President, and to destroy the foundation that supports its current well-established socio-economic infrastructure.
For now we are not ready to agree with those sectors’ observation that indeed the Marcos administration is out to destroy Davao City. Indications are not showing. In fact in the latest report of the City’s Investment Promotions Office shared in a press briefing late last week, there is a marked increase in the number of new investors and the amount they are putting in the city’s economy. The period covered by the report was for the months starting January to July 2024. The Duterte-Marcos political estrangement was already heating up during that period and capped in July.
We are however, ready to agree with the observation that what is happening lately are undercurrents of the bitter parting of ways of the leading personalities and organizations in the once perceived to be tightly knit UniTeam in the 2022 national elections.
The question worth an honest answer though is, “Who and what started it all? Were it the groups taking their cues from the developing Davao-based opposition leadership? Or were these the different anti-Marcos, Jr. organizations coming together to attempt at driving the President out of Malacanang?
On the other hand, the rift of the former allies started to come out in the open when the inclusion of a multi-billion pesos confidential and intelligence funds in the 2024 budget request for both the offices of the VP and the DedEd secretary was denied by Congress. The same was also preceded by the Congressional question on how similar funds shared by the Office of the President with the OVP and DepEd secretary was utilized.
Then there was also the move of the House of Representatives led by Presidential cousin Speaker Martin Romualdez to amend the Philippine Charter. The former President who was a leading advocate for a Charter change before the 2022 polls had his turn-around, this time against it saying that the 1986 Constitution is, after all, still okay with him after reviewing the same.
And that was when the verbal war started to manifest with most of the scathing attacks coming from no less than the former President and his sons and close associates. Now the “war” has shifted to the social media as the battle ground with the trolls of both belligerents fighting tooth and nail for their patrons.
Indeed, if the Marcos Jr. administration, backed by its police and warrior trolls, is really out to destroy Davao City, we may have our initial indications of its success once the figures of tourists arriving to witness this month’s Kadayawan festivities will reduce substantially.
Another is, if something untoward incidents that can possibly be attributable only to the lack of national government concern will lead to the withdrawal of big businesses committing to place or add new investments in the city. We may have to wait for that.
