GRP Mail - 22 Nov 2021
President Rodrigo Duterte's got two new jobs -- to be Bong Go's spokesperson and his campaign manager
Dear GRP Insiders,
Slow news week this week on the election front — not because there is no news but because there isn't much news significantly different from the previous week's.
Regards,
benign0
In review and in prospect
With the tandem of presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos and vice presidential candidate Sara Duterte pretty much set and self-evident, the campaign is underway. Partisans who remain loyal to President Rodrigo Duterte even after his surprise attack on Marcos's character continue to assure anyone who cares to listen that the president has a “plan” and the circus we have been seeing the last couple of weeks are just the steps within that plan that are in motion. “Trust Duterte” we are told. “He has a plan.”
So part of the steps of said “plan” is to sling mud at rival candidates? That does not make Duterte any better than the Yellowtards then, doesn’t it? Duterte had earlier alleged that Marcos does cocaine and is a “pro-communist” among other things. Suddenly this, after much of the last five years was spent by the two men coming across to the public as close allies. The bigger mystery therefore is why the sudden animosity on Duterte's part?
For many Duterte loyalists, the president is an infallible being that we are all implored to just trust. Yet many too have not thrown their support behind Durerte’s anointed one, Bong Go, the man he endorses as his preferred candidate for President of the Philippines. Indeed, there really aren’t much bases to work with when evaluating the prospect of a Bong Go presidency. That says something about the man Filipinos are told to “just trust”.
To campaign before an electorate made up of people who have all but signed up to blood brotherhood with their preferred candidates requires more innovation, originality, and agility we, quite simply, are just not seeing.
Last week's blog posts
Politics
Going senile? Duterte’s popguns ablaze vs BBM in support of sidekick Bong Go!
November 19, 2021 by benign0
"Turns out Duterte is not above the very sort of dishonest rhetoric that lost the Yellowtards an entire nation over two national elections. What can be worse than the Yellowtards? Turns out worse parties do exist."
Leni Robredo’s reverse metamorphosis: do Filipinos want a mother for a president?
November 16, 2021 by benign0
"Leni Robredo’s emotional appeal insults Filipinos who aspire to be independent, assertive, and prosperous by gaslighting them into believing that it is only a messiah that can set them down the right path."
November 15, 2021 by benign0
"Bong Go is widely-perceived to be a leech-like hanger-on to Brand Duterte and not much else. Indeed, Go’s being a senator and continuing to act like a 24/7 personal aide of the President was absolute bad form..."
Media
November 19, 2021 by benign0
"In actual fact, it is VERA Files that makes a false claim in this instance. It is also worth noting that the head of VERA Files, Ellen Tordesillas, is a known supporter of the Liberal Party and rabidly loyal to one of its top attack dogs..."
Business
Revising the 1987 Constitution could put an end to communist insurgencies in the Philippines
November 16, 2021 by The Unpopular
"In the Philippine setting, the highly-restrictive 1987 Constitution that constrains free enterprise makes capitalism work less efficiently and becomes less effective at lifting families out of poverty."