A Slap On The Face

PUNCH OUT  Sara Duterte (right) clobbering a court sheriff 

AS I WRITE THIS, the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) is already doing its investigation over Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte’s punching barrage on Abe Andres, a court sheriff, after the latter somehow failed to heed the mayor’s request of a 2-hour hold of a demolition assignment, prompting the mayor to issue not a restraint, but a series of punches on the sheriff’s face as the commotion of the said demolition became violent when the mayor arrived.

Duterte, however, had already filed her leave in lieu of the ongoing investigation, but the hoopla over her purported meltdown is far from taking its own leave, as it generated a lot of interest and curiosity not only in the city, but to the nation as well (thanks in part to social media for releasing her punches in nanoseconds).

First of all, it was a sight to see. All of a sudden, all the anger and frustrations of the Davaoñeos in relation to that devastating flood a couple of days before the Agdao demolition had found its expression in Sara Duterte. All the pent up emotions that have been stashed inside the hearts of those who witnessed the extent of damage in Matina Pangi was released through the Pacquiao hands of their feisty mayor. 

It was so spontaneous that the whole scene, without looking at that uploaded video, sounded more like MGM Grand in the middle of a knockout. And it was so fast that you could feel some numbness and an Are-You-Kidding-Me sort of expression after seeing the sheriff's face resembling almost like a tired fighter’s disposition after a TKO. But Duterte, for all the comments she has then received from the time he punched drunk the entire nation with her hands, was just reacting like a typical mayor in an angry fit, only this time she reacted accordingly.

Whether we admit it or not, we have found a champion in Sara Duterte. And whether the DILG has some inkling about this growing admiration of Sarah or not, that is something their office probably has a hard time selling it to the public. Swift justice has its own place in the sun, but to see a sense of justice as lighting quick as her hands, everything would be as clear as daylight, as I would imagine. We see how swiftly the resolution comes into place when certain hands do the talking instead of the mouth. The implementation may be as hurting as a quick jab, or a vicious uppercut, but by releasing that oftentimes necessary combination of backing your talk with a walk (punch, I mean), any problem would definitely suffer a sure knockout. And to see the mayor doing the dirty job herself is almost too good to be true.

"You were elected by the people to defend them. You were just doing your job."

---Rodrigo Duterte

The reactions were all valid, including those who found the act unbecoming of a mayor. But then again, somebody’s got to give. People never realize that a mayor’s job is a 24/7 hotline, and in Sara’s case, it was more than that hours before the supposed demolition. The flood, clearly, sapped her of any restraint prior to her alleged meltdown. It was almost like we’re not seeing Sara as the mayor at the height of that beating, but a visibly scorned woman out to raise hell at the expense of a distraught sheriff. 

Duterte, herself, admitted that it was all black from there onward as she punched her way through to the demolition site. She maintained that the only reason she somehow lost her cool was the thought of being ignored out of that 2-hour hold she requested just hours before the demolition squad flanked the squatters’ resistance. And then all hell went berserk after seeing a phalanx of demolition forces unfolding before her sight, getting ready for the kill; as she immediately exerted herself quite hard, found a way to demolish them initially with words, and then emphatically hammering the sheriff with a string of punches for not granting her earlier request.

But there’s going to be a demolition, anyway, even if the punching incident did not occur. And Sara was just playing the Good Samaritan to the squatting multitude, considering that the scene in Matina Pangi is still lingering profusely in her mind. And maybe the legalities circulating the whole demolition business was just too unnerving for her to deal with. Somehow it created a distraction from that flood scene that enabled her to display an unnecessary behavior in front of a flooding crowd of Agdao residents and demolition men. At that point, the demolition was still on schedule, and that the only hitch cropping up from executing it was her late minute request of a measly 2 hours for those squatters to prepare for some evacuation before the hatchet goes down. And because the request did not meet the necessary understanding, confusion followed suit.

I’m sure finding witnesses to testify against Sara in front of the DILG, or to any other courts available, would be quite daunting, impossible at times, even if you include that video as Exhibit A. It may sound so condoning for her, but her “class” act was a representation of something vindictive to a lot of people suffering from the jadedness of law and order. 

I wonder if those DILG folks would have done the same thing to Rolando Mendoza at the height of that hostage drama at the Quirino Grandstand, things would have been different, I guess. Sara’s situation in that demolition episode was DILG’s dilemma almost a year ago. The only difference was that Sara ended the issue by putting a stamp on the face of the culprit while DILG ended theirs by letting the culprit stump on their faces. They better be careful this time, and they should. Their investigation is so close to being just a display of grandstanding, minus the Quirino, to somehow create the impression that justice is still the order of the day.

BREAK A LEG Following the law sometimes means breaking it at the right moment

But Sara’s punch was a slap on their faces. That should give them the idea that following the law sometimes means breaking it at the right moment. Of course, they can investigate the incident for all they care because that’s part of their job, but breaking on through to the other side of the issue means that they now have to deal with the whole city standing by her side. 

The business community (surprisingly) and the former mayor himself, no less than her father, Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, supported her despite the pressures of some sectors for her eventual disbarment and eviction as a lawyer and a mayor respectively. I’m not even sure if the DILG has a case out of this incident. The sheriff had already apologized, and so was Sara. And by the looks of it, any investigation from now on will only intensify the slap that they have been suffering for almost a year now.

And for what it’s worth, I could only thank her for the relief she has given to everybody, including me, and to the many who may have found a champion in her, by merely displaying what was not supposed to happen, especially from a mayor, and a lady at that. 

I just wish too that the people who are now investigating her and that popular incident should have done the same thing (if the circumstances warrant) on those innumerable sins that come their way, and not just treat it all on paper. Although it wouldn’t be commendable to emulate such an act, such senseless fit, because it would only provoke an unbridled anger from both sides, and that punching a man’s face is not only brutal but barbaric at the very least. Sara’s punch, however, was a welcome respite from all that. Somehow it gave us a healing, a hand, a hope. And the DILG can have that, too, only if they return the favor.

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