DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. LITO TECSON/CEBU DAILY NEWS
Countless supporters of the Duterte for President Movement are saddened by the announcement of Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte that he is not in the running for the post.
With Duterte out of the race, Vice President Jojo Binay, who counts on the gullible common folk as his mass base, is sure of winning.
To the 鈥渢sinelas鈥� (slippers)-wearing poor, their 鈥渙wn kind鈥� is being oppressed by the powers that be.
Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, a possible presidential candidate of President Noy鈥檚 Liberal Party, is no match for Binay in the presidential elections of 2016.
Binay easily trounced Roxas in the vice presidential race of 2010.
Duterte鈥檚 refusal to throw his hat in the presidential ring is an unpatriotic act.
Allowing the country to go to the dogs when he can do something to prevent it is being unpatriotic.
The presidential election is still two years away but the call of the hour is a leader who can continue President Noy鈥檚 fight against corruption in government.
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Should Duterte change his mind, voters in the Visayas and Mindanao, the majority of whom are Cebuano-speaking, would go all-out for Duterte because he speaks their dialect.
Cebuano-speaking Filipinos constitute the country鈥檚 ethnic majority.
Educated voters in the A-B class, who hate Binay for his alleged corrupt ways, would go for Duterte who has a spotless record as far as graft is concerned.
Add to them the legions of voters in Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon who are Duterte admirers.
Duterte鈥檚 excuse that he has no money to fund his presidential campaign is flimsy because big business firms, which are mostly based in Makati City, would support him rather than Binay who has allegedly shaken them down when he was mayor of the premier city.
If there is a need to fund Duterte鈥檚 campaign, his supporters can easily collect millions of pesos through 鈥減eso para kang Rody (peso for Rody)鈥� donation campaign among ordinary citizens.
The idea is not novel as some poor candidates who ran for public office also made use of cash donations from ordinary citizens and won.
As far as his health is concerned, Duterte is as strong as a bull.
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Before people start regarding Senate President Frank Drilon with suspicion on the supposed overpricing of the construction of the P700-million Iloilo Convention Center, why don鈥檛 they look at the motive of the accuser?
Manuel Mejorada, a self-styled journalist, was the provincial administrator of former Iloilo Gov. Niel Tupas Sr., Drilon鈥檚 political enemy, according to my source in Iloilo province.
In a plunder case he filed in the Office of the Ombudsman, Mejorada included Public Works Secretary Rogelio 鈥淏abes鈥� Singson and Tourism Secretary Mon Jimenez, among the most honest in P-Noy鈥檚 Cabinet.
Mejorada apparently filed the plunder case against Drilon, Singson and Jimenez to divert public attention away from the corruption charges against Binay.
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If the testimony of a witness in the petition for bail by Sen. Bong Revilla is to have any weight at all, the senator, along with Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, might be granted bail.
Leigh Von Santos of the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) said there were no records to support the allegation that Janet Lim-Napoles, the alleged pork barrel scam queen, transferred funds to the senator鈥檚 bank accounts.
It seems the Office of the Ombudsman did not do its homework again.
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