By: Atty. Marlo T. Cristobal
Mayor Sebastián “Baste” Duterte of Davao City is a revelation. He proved himself to be the man of the hour in the last Maisug rally aimed at swiping the Marcos government for its ineptness (in his descriptive word gago).
Appearing as a true-blue oppositionist, he was a consummate and thoroughly fearless one when he fired his vicious and horrible missiles calculated to hit the very center of government power — President Marcos, Jr,. Condemning him as the sole author of all the current ills of our country, calling him, walanghiya, tanga, makapal, sira ulo, in that order. He denounced Marcos, Jr. as a confused President given that the government actions do not make sense at all. He obviously thought his direct attack was most strategic because its radioactive wave, so to speak, will likewise descend on his underlings and all the government officials under his influence, who executed his order or who made the order and executed themselves. After all, under the doctrine of command responsibility, the President is responsible for any roguishness done in the country, he having the constitutional power to execute the country’s laws empowering him to address government mischiefs. That’s why we never a bit hesitated ascribing the KOJC-Pastor Quiboloy fiasco to a “Malacañang Lawlessness” (please refer to our Catalyst channel Malacañang Lawlessness, June 11, 2024). Attack his underlings and the President has the option to ignore, but attack the President only and both he and his underlings concerned will suffer the pang of guilt or shame.
In Mayor Baste we find the ideal values of oppositionist, brutally frank, mincing no words, but staggeringly honest. He rammed through his denunciations and damned the torpedoes. He put to task Senator Bong Go, the treasured friend of his father, for not loudly standing up for his Davao city mates. He excoriated all our lawmakers from the House and Senate as mga mukhang pera and corrupt saying, totoo man and walang maisug, his way of saying they are cowards for not standing up for justice. His natural frankness showed when he chided twice his audience on different occasions, tama na upo na, pagsalitain naman ninyo ako, when they continued hailing him with loud cheers that apparently strained his patience.
And he hit hard President Marcos for disregarding the democratic rule of majority and trying to perpetuate his family in power like a Monarchy, hence, his orchestrating a constitutional tampering.
With our crop of oppositionists, Mayor Baste is par excellence, who easily can inspire fearlessness in people and galvanize them into action. He has shown his mettle as a leader of the opposition. The political opposition may well rally behind this man — he has exhibited strong potentials that can force this administration down to its knees that no one currently can.
You may ask, why does this man all of sudden came all out with searing, scathing multi-words under conditions completely no holds-barred? Irrespective of what others think or speculate, here is our take. When FP Duterte strongly reacted recently to the KOJC-arrest warrant disaster as “absolutely unacceptable,” we concluded that he had drawn the battle lines, and that his two words were a battle cry that signaled for everyone on his side to now go into action. And we said (please refer again to our Catalyst channel Malacanang Lawlessness, June 11, 2024), “The stage is set, and the drama unfolds.” And so quickly unfolds the drama: Mayor Baste viciously punching, Sarah Duterte breaking her clinch with the administration to marshal her own punches, with more coming and more unheld back punches, as we said in our write up back, “Abangan Ang Susunod na Kabanata!” (please refer to our Catalyst channel Is President Marcos Jr. bound to repeat history? , June 11, 2024).
