Once dubbed the killing field of the homegrown Communist Party of the Philippines and its vicious New People’s Army, Davao City inched up painstakingly to be liberated from the terrorist grasp. Freed by Cory Aquino’s revolutionary government, Jose Ma. Sison, the chieftain of the CPP/NPA, fled the country and sought asylum in Utrecht, the Netherlands, which is just an hour’s drive from The Hague.
Joma was giving orders to the NPA by remote control from the comfort of his home in the Netherlands. He maintained his lifestyle with the “people’s taxes” that the NPAs exacted from the communities that they controlled.
Reckoning from current developments, it is a supreme irony that Joma, the leader of the CPP/NPA, which even the European Union had declared a terrorist group, was given asylum by the Netherlands until he passed away.
It is indeed ironic that detained in the same foreign territory is Rodrigo R. Duterte, the former mayor of Davao City under whose leadership the vicious terrorist group was effectively contained and when he became president effectively defanged.
To backtrack a bit, when the CPP/NPA finally lost control of Davao City in a phenomenal people’s uprising described as “alsa masa,” the drug syndicates crept into the city. With the remnants of the NPA driven to remote barangays, it was easy for the syndicates to recruit drug pushers even on school campuses.
It was at this time that Duterte was elected mayor. He faced several phalanxes of enemies, among them the MNLF secessionists, the rising tide of terrorism and the drug syndicates.
Duterte was unfazed. He invited MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari to City Hall which ended the bombing of churches, buses and ports. The attempt of the Jemaah Islamiyah to sow terror in the city was curbed with the help of Muslim residents who served as tripping points set up by the city’s intelligence agency. Duterte himself led the raid on a shabu laboratory which neutralized three Chinese chemists.
Fast forward. Under Sara Duterte as mayor and with the fielding of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), Davao City was finally declared “insurgency free” by the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The other regions followed with hordes of CPP/NPA combatants giving up and returning to the fold of the law.
Davawenyos have gone through the grind of the terrifying chapters in Davao City’s history. We had leaders who held the reins of power and we had leaders who led us by example and inspired us to live a disciplined and peaceful life.
If Sen. Risa Hontiveros and Rep. Leila de Lima hate Vice President Sara Duterte like the plague, Davaowenyos like her leadership style molded in the cast of the venerable and impeccable Gov. Vicente Duterte of the undivided Davao and the social activist Soledad “Nanay Soleng” Duterte and honed by her father, Rodrigo Duterte.
Of course, there are a few Davaowenyos who cannot accept the Duterte leadership, firstly because of envy and, secondly, because despite the Dutertes’ frugal and extremely simple lifestyle they still get elected practically unopposed.
Detained in faraway Netherlands, the former president ran for mayor of Davao City again, garnering almost 90 percent of the votes cast. His trust and approval ratings before, during and after his term as president are still unprecedented, something the ICC judges must take into consideration.
While there may have been 43 innocent victims in the six-year presidential term of Duterte, he saved over a million drug addicts who were rehabilitated; dismantled all the drug laboratories in the country; and either neutralized or jailed a number of drug lords. Certainly, that does not fall under the definition of “crime against humanity.’’
Looming to be the next president is the incumbent Vice President Sara Duterte. She leads in every survey which brings jitters to her political nemeses from traditional politicians to the remnants of the CPP/NPA.
Domestic and foreign investors see not only the political landscape but also understand why Davao City remains the most livable and peaceful city in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia.
As I write this piece, three multibillion-peso investments are taking shape in three strategic places in the city. Road and bridge infrastructure are in the works and soon to be opened. The bus transport modernization project, the first of its kind in the country, is now a pulsating reality. Foreign airlines have added Davao to their route following the declaration of the city as the top destination in the country.
Among the most telling and significant developments amid the scandalous corruption issues besetting the country are the frequent visits of foreign diplomats to the office of VP Sara and most recently the invitation of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry to be their keynote speaker. They wanted to see the transparent and predictable Duterte brand of leadership and why, despite the indifference of the national leadership, the city has a vibrant economic growth and a healthy investment climate.