Thousands waited Mayor Duterte's Rally in Malabon (video)

MALABON CITY – Mayor Rodrigo Duterte drew another oversized crowd Wednesday evening to affirm his position as the leader in this year’s presidential race.

 Duterte spent more time with his impoverished audience in Malabon a few hours after he faced the Makati Business Club at the posh Peninsula Hotel.

 Obviously exhausted after spending too many nights in too many places, Duterte again pushed his body to the limits to deliver at least two messages: that he is physically fit to run the nation at his age and, more importantly, he will spend more time to address the concerns of the poor and the needy more than the affluent.

 Duterte arrived late in Malabon not only because he spoke lengthily with the captains of industry but also because his caravan moved at a snail’s pace, repeatedly stalled by huge crowds along the way.

 The attention and affection that have been showered on Duterte especially by the masses attest to his expanding popularity and acceptability despite mainstream media’s obvious efforts to downplay it.

 Duterte’s erstwhile improbable ascent to the top has defied expectations and explanations. While self-styled analysts and experts try every trick in the book to burst the bubble, the fact is that few really understand the Duterte phenomenon.

 People spending hours just for a chance to catch a glimpse of him passing by, otherwise refined individuals throwing grace to the winds for a groupie if not a selfie with him, supporters going great lengths to spend for his campaign paraphernalia, these and other expressions of support is every politician’s dream.

 People from the other side of the tracks dutifully sat and waited literally on the other side of the canal, displaying admirable patience that is rarely associated with informal settlers. 

 While credit must be given to all the entertainers who freely lent their talents to hold the fort until Duterte arrives, it must also be shared to a crowd that behaved and participated admiringly in a bruising campaign that have exposed otherwise respectable individuals for who they really are – hacks who sell their dignity, if not their souls, for a price.

 This campaign has brought out people for who they really are, in the process shattering stereotypes of who the good and bad guys are.An interesting footnote to the Malabon sortie was the social experiment where hosts Jimmy Bondoc and Niel de Mesa requested those in front to pass on packs of ballers to those behind them. That those in front resisted the temptation to divide the spoils among themselves to follow instructions was proof that contrary to stereotypes, informal settlers are as eager for change as those who move about in controlled communities.

 While others who know when to give up when they see the writing on the wall, there are those who will sell their souls to win at all cost. Many of those who waited for Duterte in Malabon said they would go to Luneta on May 7 to express their solidarity with all the “Dutertards”, supposedly a derisive name coined by critics to mock his supporters.

 If only half of the crowds who attended his engagements and those who waited for his motorcades to pass by would attend, there would be no denying the fact that Duterte is no. 1 and that this country is ripe for change.

 There will always be those who disagree, not surprising because the Philippines is a democracy. The fact, however, is that in a democracy, the majority rules. For the longest time, it has been the other way around.

 The huge crowd turnouts at virtually every Duterte activity in spite of a hostile mainstream media and a shameless administration prove not only that Duterte is no. 1.

Duterte’s passionate support base signals a new beginning in a nation that has long suffered from minority rule.

 Devoid of media hype, scorned by the elite and the establishment, belittled by the comfortable, Duterte is just a few weeks away from his rendezvous with destiny.

 Filipinos are on the verge of installing a president who might not only win the war against drugs, criminality and corruption but also one where the government serves the people.