Roxas boosting Duterte bid

What presidential aspirant Mar Roxas is doing now remindsone of a challenger in a boxing match trying too hard to unseat a reigning champion.

That “champion,” of course, is Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who, if the recent polls were to be believed, is a serious contender in the race for the highest elective office in the country.

Roxas’s communication team, reportedly led by Palace Spokesman Edwin Lacierda, must have been shocked by the poll results and the near-rock star status to which recent developments propelled Duterte. They were so shocked that their strategy appears to have been trained on demolishing Duterte and pitting Roxas against him, one-on-one.

The move is a faux pas. It will merely boost further Duterte’s star. In a one-on-one match-up with the Davao City mayor, Roxas would miserably pale in comparison.

The Lacierda team should consider the following:

First, in Duterte, the people feel they are getting and seeing the real thing. In Roxas, the public has yet to see the real him; since the days of the dancing and prancing Mr. Palengke, the public has not been presented with the authentic, uncontrived, unpackaged version.

When Duterte publicly cursed the traffic jam in Metro Manila, using the most notorious Filipino cuss word, people knew they were seeing the real him, take it or leave it, love it or hate it. When Roxas publicly uttered the illustrado version of that cuss word at an Ayala Avenue rally against then-President Gloria Arroyo, he invited mostly guffaws and a surprised look on people’s faces. His delivery of the cuss word appeared rehearsed, calculated and too perfectly pronounced.

Second, much legend surrounds Duterte. The legends—such as the “disappearance” of criminals and drug dealers in Davao City, his late-night patrols disguised as a taxi driver, and even his alleged womanizing – serve only to endear him to the public and mystique.

There are no legends surrounding Roxas.

Mostly, they’re horror stories involving him that have registered well in the public mind – that painful scolding of the mayor of Tacloban City where Roxas sternly reminded the former that “you are a Romualdez,” the lachrymose emotional moments following the death of Secretary Jesse Robredo, and that comic video of Roxas which went viral on the Internet showing him doing a “pulis-pulisan” trying to untangle a traffic jam.

Recently, the media reported Roxas raring to engage Duterte in a public debate. “Now, we can debate over which direction we will take the country,” the media quoted Roxas as having said.

The move—which carries Lacierda’s imprint all over it—is bound to explode on Roxas’s face.

The Lacierda team must have thought that a presidential debate is a contest of logic, intellect and mastery of the English language. That’s the problem with people who had too much moot-court experience.

In the event that a Duterte-Roxas debate does materialize, we foresee Roxas going on full display of his intellectual prowess.

We foresee Roxas dishing out statistics, data, figures. In fairness, he has a lot of those, given his stint as a member of the Cabinet under Presidents Arroyo, Erap Estrada and Noynoy Aquino.

Unfortunately, it is that air of intellectual superiority that has so far alienated Roxas from the public, particularly that segment called the “masa.”

The recitation of statistics, facts and data hardly impresses the greater number of people. At best, using these in that prospective debate with Duterte will only prove that Roxas is the better-educated person. “Educado” – that’s what Roxas is.

If education were to be the sole measure of fitness for the presidency, Roxas will beat Duterte, hands down.

Unfortunately, such is not the basis. People are not looking to elect a great debater. They are looking for someone they feel they know and can trust.

And, if that debate does materialize, the Lacierda team must be careful about an outcome they least expect and want – the emergence of Duterte as a champion of the common man, with a lot of common sense, who speaks the common tao’s language, and who has a lot of common-sense solutions to common problems, which Wharton’s quadruple Ph.D. professors don’t teach.

In fairness to Roxas, we believe he has a fairly good idea of where to bring this country.

The problem is that most Filipinos can’t get themselves to trust him to bring them there.

At this point, Duterte enjoys the higher trust and the greater preference.

We hope the Lacierda team realizes that trust and preference are things you cannot argue or debate people into.

They are earned.

Isang Mapayapa at Manigong Bagong Taon po sa ating lahat!