There's a Duterte in All of Us

...and why it must be stopped.

Pain. Rage. Anger. Fury. Justice.

They are familiar companions. As I lit a huge fire made of dried twigs and leaves, I shouted at the top of my lungs at the darkness. My throat hurt and my voice grew hoarse, the flames emboldened. Smoke from the fire I made went inside my lungs. Fury demanded an answer. This was its moment. Time passed, the embers glowed.

Still nothing replied.

The darkness smirked silently with its eyes aglow at the display of raw anger, pain and vehemence. Yet it did not dare to come and show itself.

I doused some more gasoline on the fire, the flames roared. The skin on my body tingled with searing heat. That was the angriest moment of my entire life.

Furious at these... sorry excuses. They who did things in dark corners. They who brag about their travails of darkness. Everything about them repulsed my being.

As Duterte said, "I can see no redeeming factor - not a single iota of redemption..."

Of this, I can write nothing good, I know. But this was the truth's stand. For long it has slept and shackled itself. The Word bound it.

I saw humanity with no rules except it's own desires. 

Indeed they like their dark corners.

Sometimes, they can appear like a weak and kind old man, smiling with a gentle voice. People get easily taken by these. Surely, old men with gentle voices can do no harm.

I hear stories of them. They in their tiny shanties and of the little children they keep. I see these men going to church. Atoning for their sins maybe, atoning for their weakness. In their frailty hides a demon so maleficent that you would not notice it.

The stronger among them, plot in the darkest corners. They spew their intoxicated, twisted and convoluted apprehension of reality.

They twist the truth with medieval effort. They claim righteousness and the crowds cheer for them. Oh how the crowds applaud for the things they hear.

Flies swirl around their food as they pick from it.

But when the light of fire comes, they go scampering away.

...Eager to stick to a benefactor that abides by their twisted tongues, they praise the name of the bellicose and the corrupt. To the ears of the un-hearing, everything sounds good and righteous. But always the case, that it is in the darkness that they plot.

Their weapon of choice is treachery, they will befriend you. They will try to make your heart feel at ease with stories that can break your heart. Of these, they always have somebody to blame.

There has to be another way other than Duterte.

There are many who badly need fixing. Broken jars beyond the repair of any man.

I've seen most of their kind.

Yes. I've seen most of their kind.

Alas, redemption, has not yet shown it's face.

God has not answered.

Sometimes I ask myself if Duterte should indeed be unleashed.

That debate goes on in my mind incessantly. The answer almost always comes out as "No. Lest we turn into monsters like them. No, lest the darkness binds us too."