The arrest and incarceration of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte in The Hague, Netherlands have created a new battle ground as well as two opposing groups of prayer warriors. These prayer warriors are those who align themselves with the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. as well as the immediate relatives of those who are believed victims of extrajudicial killings; and those who are rabid supporters of the jailed former President who believed that the latter is a victim of political persecution.
The former prayer warrior group members are strongly praying that the so-called victims of summary executions will finally be able to get justice for their deaths with the conviction of the former President for the alleged crime against humanity. On the other hand, the other prayer warrior group is storming the gates of heaven asking God to have the former chief executive exonerated the soonest possible time and for the ICC to allow his immediate return to the Philippines.
Both groups are shouting at the top of their voices hoping that their prayers be heard by God Almighty. The decibel of the strongly verbalized prayers of the two groups manifested during their prayer rallies though, differ. The Duterte followers appear to have the upper hand in terms of the loudness of their imploring for God’s intervention. That of the pro-administration and the families of the alleged EJK victims is somewhat lower in audibility most likely because only an insignificant few got the courage to be open in their desire for justice.
Now which group’s imploring of God’s intervention is likely to be responded to by the ultimate dispenser of justice? Probably, after two or three years the Filipinos will know exactly which of the opposing groups’ prayer in the rallies is heard and favorably responded to.
Meanwhile, as the two political opposing groups are fighting it out for God’s intervention their armies of trolls and vloggers are unrelenting in their own “war.” They are defending, building up, or destroying their target personalities through the various social media platforms.
For how long will they’ll be at each other’s throat we have no idea so far. What we are certain though is that for as long as the former President’s case remains unsettled at the ICC there will be no let-up in the battles waged by both the protagonist groups’ prayer warriors and their armies of partisan vloggers and trolls.
And with the mercury rising in the political thermometer due to the coming elections the battles among the Duterte admirers and administration loyalists are getting to become even nastier.
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Our personal observation is that Second District Congressional candidate Javi Garcia Campos is doing his campaign quite silently. He seemed to have adopted a more grass root approach dong small group meetings with people especially those residing in the rural areas and highlands in his district.
Based on our experience when we once helped a congressional candidate in our district in Cebu, the same strategy now used by Javi Campos was very effective. Our congressional bet then was considered by many as one who was coming from the district’s most elite society. Not only that he has the looks of the wealthy and famous he was also then a non-fixture in places such as eateries and other entertainment establishments most frequented to by the common people.
The good characteristic of that candidate we helped campaign was that he listened when we do reviews of the status of his campaign.
When a few of us got the courage to give our observation of the way he wanted his campaign done he found our observation relevant and our suggestion for him to engage in a grass root approach worth a try. And that was when he started getting crowds lingering on in his small oftentimes informal rallies.
From then on the reception of our assisted congressional candidate was getting warmer everywhere he went. People started feeling that he was one among them and that his appearance and social standing were not walls that made him less accessible. When the election was over he was the representative of our district.
In the case of Davao City’s second district candidate Javi Campos, a third generation in the Garcia political clan, we are not privy in the crafting of his strategy.
However, our acquaintance with one of the Garcia pillars, Arthur Garcia, we know that during the time of the late Nonoy Garcia, a long-serving congressman of Javi’s district, interacting with the masses was his “cup of tea.”
Thus, the Garcia’s identity as one among the city’s elite families was never a bar in the late Nonoy Garcia’s and his children Meilen’s and Vincent’s, winning the congressional seat.
Of course how Javi play his role in that approach, if he is really using that, will matter the most in upping his chances against a Duterte scion.
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