COLUMN: HORIZONS: Duterte’s ‘Yolanda’: The gushing wound of Marawi
“Me, if I become president, if Allah gives his blessing, before I die since I am old, I will leave to you all a Mindanao that is governed in peace,” promised Rodrigo Duterte during his election campaign.
“Long live the Moro! Long live the Moro! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar [God is Great]!,” he declared with undaunted conviction, presenting himself as the harbinger of a new era in Mindanao.
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Billing himself as the first “Moro president,” Mr. Duterte berated his rivals as clueless and uncaring products of “Imperial Manila” who have little compassion for and commitment to Muslim Mindanao. “Who of the three [leading presidential] candidates,” he asked, “can speak about the problem of the Moro, the problem of the BBL [Bangsamoro Basic Law], the problem of poverty and hunger [in Muslim Mindanao]?”
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His answer was, unsurprisingly, “None of them.” And that’s “[why] I am running for President and I will fix Mindanao.”
One could sense the sincerity of Mr. Duterte’s best intentions when it comes to Mindanao, especially toward our Moro brothers and sisters. Here is a man who seemingly understood the complexities, nuances and human tragedy of the strife in Mindanao far better than his rivals. After all, he spent much of his colorful and tortuous political career at the forefront of the island’s transformation throughout decades of conflict among competing identity groups, connivance among warlords and oligarchs, and cooperation among like-minded Mindanaoan visionaries.
Arguably, Mr. Duterte was the best choice for Mindanao in 2016. Three years on, however, his record is, at best, mixed. On one hand, he has valiantly delivered on his promise to get the Bangsamoro law through legislative hurdles and political roadblocks.
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At the same time, however, his term has seen the destruction of Marawi, one of our most beautiful and cherished cities.
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