An appeal to former Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte

An appeal to former Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte: Pls accept the DILG Secretary position.

Dear Mayor Rody,

Local and national newspapers have recently featured news reports about President P-Noy offering the DILG Secretary post to you but you politely declined for two reasons: (1) you don’t think you are qualified enough for the job, and (2) you have a covenant to serve the people of Davao as current Vice Mayor.

We’d like to appeal to you to reconsider and accept the offer. We're sure you are fully qualified. Anybody who has seen Davao from the time you first became mayor decades ago up to today will no doubt say that it has progressed in leaps and bounds.

We're sure most of the mayors of our country look up to you with envy at such accomplishment which was attained despite Davao being geographically part of troubled Mindanao. Is there a better qualification for supervising the LGUs nationwide?

Further, one major role of the DILG Secretary is supervising the PNP. Again, anybody who has observed your administration of the Davao City government has surely seen how the PNP highly regards your leadership. This “image factor” is very important as the PNP is a very powerful organization and they can practically “disregard” a secretary whom they feel doesn’t deserve their respect.

The psyche of policemen is that anybody who deserves their respect is someone with a strong character. Sure, they will salute and officially respect a “weak” secretary, but in real terms his instructions and directions will largely be ignored by the PNP hierarchy.

As importantly, what we need now is a strong DILG Secretary whose no-nonsense reputation can strike fear in the hearts of criminals nationwide who are having a heyday kidnapping, drugs dealing, lording over illegal gambling empires and such.

In as far as your covenant with the people of Davao is concerned, we believe that most of the Dabawenyos will be willing to “lend” you to the national government to help our country become great again. Davao is doing very good as it is, with your able daughter Mayor Inday Sarah at the helm. It is the whole nation that needs to be really helped, sick and weak as it currently is.

Besides, as DILG Secretary, part of your authority and responsibility is to supervise, guide and support the city government of Davao and the Davao City Police Office. That should sufficiently ensure that the Davao you love so much will continue to be peaceful and progressive.

Another reason we wish you will accept it is that you will become part of the cabinet. As such, Mindanao will finally have a real voice there, where the major decisions for the country’s good are made. As it has always been, and as it is currently, Mindanao is hardly represented in the higher echelons of the government. And it does not augur well for Mindanao’s future when there is nobody there to push its peace and development agenda.

A lasting peace in Mindanao is actually the concern of all Filipinos--including those in Visayas and Luzon-- as it will remove the fears of foreigners and bring in more investments and tourists to the country.

Some people argue that Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima was born and spent early childhood in a town in Cotabato; ergo, he is the face of Mindanao in the cabinet. But the question is , is Sec. Purisima’s heart still for Mindanao? Has he shown such special concern and efforts for Mindanao in the recent past?

We doubt. He’s been away from Mindanao for so long and we're not aware of his remaining strong ties here—immediate family, business interests, property ownerships, etc.—and it makes us believe that the accident of his birth in Mindanao alone does not qualify him to be considered a real Mindanaoan in heart and spirit.

So, please Vice Mayor Rody, make Davao prouder of you; help Mindanao become more peaceful and progressive; and help make the whole country a better place to live in.

Please accept the post of DILG Secretary now, before it's offered to someone else less capable.

Respectfully,

The people of Davao
The people of Mindanao
The people of the Philippines