IT IS still weeks before the official start of the campaign for candidates running for local elective positions. However, we read a post on Facebook yesterday openly taking a hard swipe against the local administration in Davao City.
The post highlighted the huge revenue generated by Davao City for the year 2024. It mentions something like P13 billion and a photo of Mayor Baste Duterte gamely basking on the fiscal achievement.
The same social media post, however, also mentioned that 25 percent of the revenue can be used as confidential funds by the top local executive. In a way, it is insinuating that with such a huge amount of money, Baste who is at present the mayor of the city can pursue whatever he wants to do including even those activities that are not allowed for confidential expenditures.
As to who might have posted the same there is not much discerning to do. Who else could have done the post but the political adversaries of the Dutertes in Davao City? But why pick on Baste when he is not running for mayor, it is his father former President Rodrigo Duterte. The incumbent mayor is running as vice mayor instead.
Well, we are certain that Duterte political nemesis for the local polls is fully convinced the former President, when he wins the election as he seems assured, will not assume his post and have his son Baste assume instead. After all, there is certainty in the minds of most Davaoenos that he will win over his opponent Dr. Bernie Al-ag.
Hence, the Duterte opponents are zeroing their attacks on the candidate who is likely to still be the mayor after the May 2025 elections.
Our take on the post though is that it is far too early if we have to reckon with the official period of campaigning for local candidates. For now, we have this notion that while in a political contest, the offense is an important element in winning, the local opposition’s doing it much earlier could give the city administration a better opportunity to craft a more effective defense and at the same time destructive offense strategies. So, by the time the retaliation is launched it could create a crippling blow to the ones challenging the city administration.
Of course, if the Duterte nemesis at the local government is ready with their fallback strategies to cushion the impact of a counter-offensive from City Hall, then perhaps they can afford to launch their “projectiles” early. But do they have such fallback schemes?
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The Davao City Police Office (DCPO) is now put on the defensive after complying with a Memorandum Circular from the Regional Police Office (RPO) XI to deploy additional men to augment the security forces of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. during the Alyansa sa Bagong Pilipinas rally in Carmen, Davao del Norte.
There is no doubt that many believe it is standard operating procedure for the police in a given area to help ensure the safety and security of the President. And there should not be any argument about it.
Unfortunately, it is election time and the rally was held in a municipality of the region that is considered the bailiwick of former President Rodrigo Duiterte, now the leading political enemy of Marcos, Jr.
Again, we see no problem with that. The problem is with the contents of the Memo Circular that ordered the police contingent members to be sent to the Alyansa rally to wear civilian attire “with a touch of red.” The policemen too, did not only have in their attire the “touch of red” but they wore instead total red shirts as seen in the pictures circulated on social media.
And it is no secret that the color red is the color that is worn mostly by people attending big gatherings where the President and his team are guests.
Adding to the police misfortune is that a copy of the circular from the PRO XI found its way to the hands of possibly an avid Duterte follower. He or she could be responsible for posting the copy on Facebook. It immediately caused an uproar among the Duterte partisans who bombarded the police office with scathing reactions denouncing the police’s apparent bias.
Now DCPO Director Col. Hansel Marantan has to go not just to the mainstream media but to the social media as well to explain the circumstances. So does the spokesperson of the PRO XI. But our observation is that the minds of the Davaoeno political observers appear to be fixated on the supposed police bias.
How long will such a belief exist, we have no idea. But what is certain is that a very innocent phrase “wear a touch of red” is now creating havoc in the local police credibility. With that seemingly “harmless” little phrase, the local police really have it coming.
