Parents bring their kids along during the grand rally in Davao City of Presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte here on Wednesday night. The crowd estimate reportedly reach between 20,000 to 35,000. (Ace R. Morandante/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY— A political rally here on March 16 at the end of the Araw ng Dabaw demonstrated the huge following of this city’s Mayor Rodrigo Duterte in the social media.
On that day, active netizen supporters all over the globe participated in the event through sharing and commenting in various social media platforms, repeating the feat that they did during the Presidential debate in Cagayan de Oro where online media outfit, Rappler, shows that the top pick of the four Rappler polls was Mayor Duterte’s.
In instances however, the behavior of some netizens supporting Duterte have turned controversial, that even fellow supporters expressed ambivalence on reacting to them to allegations about bullying..
One of the recent trending issues in the social media is the viral cut video of Stephen Villena a freshmen student of UP Los Baños who grilled Mayor Duterte during a forum in UP.
“So sana pakisagot po ‘yung tanong ng diretso kasi ‘yung tanong ko lang naman po hindi po ba madadagdagan ‘yung budget for defense sa pag-implement n’yo ng ginagawa n’yo sa Davao City sa buong Pilipinas, so sana po pakisagot lang po ng diretso kasi nagtatanong lang kami ng diretso para makauwi na po kayo,” Villena said.
(Please answer the question directly. I was asking if the defense budget will not be increased if you implement your (peace and order) programs in Davao City to the whole Philippines. Please answer it directly because we are asking you directly, so you can go home after.)
During the March 16 rally attended by an estimated crowd of 20,000, Davao Today, talked to some of the supporters of Duterte to react on the issue that some of them has been tagged as “bully” in the social media.
Natural reaction
Daisy Mangoba, a Duterte supporter said that she does not mind being called a bully for her support to the mayor.
“It’s okay (if we are bullies), deserve sa iyaha kay dili man pud tama ang iya pag ask ug question, mali pud iya pagtreat kang duterte (he deserves it because the way he asked the question is not right and he must not treat Duterte like that).”
Mangoba also described the reaction of the supporters as “natural”.
Bullying as negative
In contrast, Marvin Ramirez, 21 years old from Calinan told Davao Today that even as a supporter, one must also remember that “bullying violates the principles of having peace.”
“If we want to attain peace, then we can have it through a peaceful discussion,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez said that sometimes Duterte “himself is a bully also but since we know what are the things that violate morals then we should be rational enough to do the right thing”.
‘Keep it cool’
Lunar Tan Fayloga, a Theology teacher of Ateneo de Davao University and also a solid supporter of Duterte emphasized: “We have the right to express ourselves, to ask questions whether the question is right or wrong it will depend on the level of thinking of a person.”
Fayloga said that the way the student questioned was “really rude whether if the question is meant for Duterte, Vice President Jejomar Binay or other people”.
He said though, that Duterte was very understanding to the student as he asked supporters to be civil, decent in campaign’s critics.
He also asked fellow supporters to “be cool”.
“The right thing to do is to approach the student in a very good manner to show him that we (supporters) can be respectful even to those people who commit mistakes because if he was being rude and we (supporters) will be rude to him too then what is the difference between us from him?” he said. (davaotoday.com)
