How dirty is the politics in the Philippines today? I remember one day a friend of mine asked us to define politics in one word. One friend of mine who was also asked by this friend of ours answered "DIRTY", others answered "MONEY", and "POWER". The recent incident happened in Davao, a city located at the southern part of the Philippines, last Saturday July 1, 2011 between its city Mayor and the city's court sheriff can be considered as one example of how is POLITICS can be define in one word such as: DIRTY, MONEY and POWER. Mayor Sara Duterte, who happens to be the daughter of the former Mayor and now Davao city Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte was caught on camera hitting four punches on the face of Davao Regional Trial Court Sheriff Abbe Andres during a demolition at one of the shanties in the city. According to the news, Duterte found out a riot happening on a demolition while attending to some residents of the recent flasflood victims. She then went to the place and approached the sheriff with four strong punches on the face unremorsed. Poor sheriff, he was surprised with the attack, can not do anything but obtain those punches from the fists of its "beloved" mayor.
Sara Duterte, a lawyer and the present mayor of Davao city is the first woman to be elected as a Mayor of their town. It's only been a year since she held office as the city Mayor, might also be the first mayor to say an early goodbye and to be ousted from her current position because of ominous and revolting behavior. According to Senate President Enrile, the mayor must be sanctioned because of not respecting the court's order. The Regional Trial Court order the demolition of the shanties at Barangay Kapitan Tomas Monteverde Sr. Suliman, Agdao. She then asked Andres to wait for two hours before serving the demolition on that place. However, the sheriff was just following orders from the court to have the demolition be served, wherein the Mayor was mad about.
The demolition created riots and violent reactions in that place from the residents. 500 families of the said Barangay were insistent to stay and to block the demolition team.
Personally, I don't like the action taken by the Mayor to the Sheriff. She only shows the definition of politics which are dirty, money and power. She must be sanctioned and must be taken out of the office. She is abusing her power as the Mayor. The elected officials must always carry the value of respect, initiator of peace and order, and must have the legacy of a good leadership. Mayor Sara Dutertes only provided the citizens of Davao and the entire Philippines the picture of an abused women empowerment and of an abused usage of leadership. This is not a good picture. Remember, the leader must always be in the middle of a two opponent individuals and must always perform a resolution for the problem at hand, however because of the malevolence caused by her own misdeeds she has just shown that she is neither a leader nor a peacemaker.
