Love in the Time of Rodrigo Duterte

TOO MUCH LOVE WILL KILL YOU How can you have love under a martial rule? 

IT'S ALMOST UNBELIEVABLE TO THINK of love when we talk of Rodrigo Duterte. His name has been synonymous with anti-illegal drug campaigns, indiscriminate cussing, and mysterious disappearances. And by the looks of it, you’d think love is a mere casualty to this ongoing phenomenon.

But it’s so easy to dismiss him when you’re up against his brand of politics like it is so hard to think of love when you’re thinking of your next meal. That may be the underlying mood as soon as Duterte came onto the scene as the president of the land. You would hear him cussing on national TV, throw a dirty finger to it, or put to rest anything that comes his way, such braggadocio only he can probably give, exacerbated even with his imposition of curfews and shutdowns as signals that the party is over.

When you’re dealing with that sort of treatment, chances are, you would lock yourself indoors and leave love in the dark. And it's been a while, though, since we're having that Valentine vibe out there with these unexplained killings happening almost every day. 

Duterte brought an ambivalent air across the nation when he became president. Many speculated that the revelry and the gray areas that most people enjoyed prior to his administration would now have its black and white, love included. It is as if love went out of the window. With his infamous reputation as a tough mayor of Davao, his system of government, some would argue, would be puritanical, to say the least, and that any form of affection is frowned upon.

“Nightlife” is now a thing of the past; you can’t just walk across the street without trudging on that pedestrian lane, and that you need to be careful with the way you look because you can be approached by someone in uniform. It is becoming overprotective. These were rumors turning into fears that love might suffer some strain the moment Duterte claws his way into ultimate power. 

How can you have love under a martial rule? The challenge always is to be creative. Despite Duterte’s purported restrictions, many people still feel positive about his system, what with the effect it has on a once beleaguered city in Davao. Like going back to its first love, his government, right from the get-go, is setting its sights of going back to traditional values and having that dogged determination of putting an end to evildoers. This love has a sort of a cooling off from the excessiveness of the last two administrations.

You may think of this love as unusual, off-kilter, but it's not. It’s basically going back to square one. To no fault of his own, the president is actually proposing that old fashioned way of dealing with things, and yet some of his policies and protestations are quite liberal and offbeat. Whatever that means, it always has a positive effect on a majority of people, not just in Davao. 

So there’s nothing to worry, in the first place. The relationship is only undergoing a realization, as exemplified with such manners as his request of toning down fashion during his SONA a year ago or cutting the budget of an under-performing government office, let alone curtailing an alleged clandestine media outlet. It is not a romantic love with all its trappings, but one that is self-conscious about having a kind of reckoning and accountability.  

Yes, there is still love in the time of Rodrigo Duterte; it may take some time, though, before it can be considered an affair.      


article published in Mindanao Times