By Raïssa Robles
I’m starting today my own kind of gossip column which I decided to call “Halo-Halo”. It will be a mixture of light and serious stuff; and juicy tidbits I pick up during coverage.
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte should take her punishment like a man. Perhaps several days’ suspension from office. She should insist on it. And by doing so, she would be sealing her future as a lady politician who cannot be crossed by anyone but knows when she herself has crossed the line.
GMA-7 catches Mayor Sara "the Slugger" Duterte in action
GMA-7 scoop - The punching mayor of Mindanao
If it had been her daddy at the helm making that request for a two-hour stay on the squatter demolition the sheriff that Sara punched would have even agreed to three. Or even four hours. But since Sara was a woman, the Sheriff thought she would be soft and would stand by helplessly. The sheriff was wrong. Very wrong.
With three short punches, Sara Duterte shot to fame and the future is now shining bright for her. She was on the wrong side of the law but on the right side of right. This is how politics is played in the country and elsewhere.
Everybody keeps talking about the ‘Samar faction’ and the ‘Balay’ faction as the two contending forces in Malacañang Palace.
This week, Executive Secretary Jojo Ochoa explained on ANC cable TV that the names were derived from the places where the two groups once congregated during the 2010 presidential campaign.
He confirmed that the ‘Samar faction’ met inside an old house on Samar Street that his brother-in-law had bought and lent to him for the campaign. Ochoa said the place was really the headquarters of the lawyers’ group he had put together to defend the votes of candidate Benigno Aquino III.
I knew I had taken some photos of that dilapidated mansion on Samar Street, which is the street parallel to EDSA and at the very end, would take you to the GMA-7 TV building.
But for the life of me, I could not recall where I had stashed the photos.
Today I finally found them. Here they are below:
The foyer of the now decaying mansion is dominated by a grand wooden staircase:
A winding staircase dominates the foyer - PHOTO by Raissa Robles
The garden of the mansion:
The garden is quiet despite only a wall separating it from Edsa- PHOTO by Raissa Robles
There are leftover French-style furniture:
Left-over French-style furniture - PHOTO by Raissa Robles
And plenty of communications equipment.
The 'Samar' faction's communication equipment - PHOTO by Raissa Robles
I’d just like to share with you this shot of a coffee shop ad:
Quaint coffee ad - PHOTO by Raissa Robles
It reminded me of the Sci-fi movies, Aliens and Species.
And now a juicy bit of gossip:
A senior executive of an airline company told me – along with a gaggle of girls – about this very controversial lovey-dovey couple on board their plane. They were all over each other and things were really getting steamy.
In the midst of it, the woman excused herself to go to the potty. While she was gone, the young man casually opened his lover’s handbag and extracted a wad of dollars from her wallet.
Please, I must warn any woman who was there when the tale was told, don’t give their names away. Might ruin the romance.
Rallie F. Cruz says
Being right is relative. The Mayor in her political position and ambition to champion the oppressed feels she has the power to decide what she thinks is necessary. A reason why a larger percentage was taken on those who agreed with what she did.
The problem of being right however, is to be truly right in its sense, has to be “JUST” also. If justice is absent then, whatever is right will deserves no merit. The Judge’s Sheriff is just following orders and doing it on time or delaying it, is not his to decide but the judge.
It only happens sadly on country’s like ours whose borrowed and copied government system is lead by those who hire goons around their leaders and often elects a goon himself in the position.
Menie says
I tend to agree with manilamac. Woman or not, she had no right to punch a subordinate who was just doing his job, and, from the reports I’ve seen, did not do anything wrong towards her. This action smacks to me of impunity. Ano tayo, wild wild west? As a mayor, she has to respect the rule of law. Flaunting her power by injuring another person in full view of a mass of people and the media seems to me to be a small wave going in the same direction as the tidal wave that was the Ampatuan massacre.
dot says
What I know is she fought for her people. The punching incident may not be right , but she has all the reasons behind why she did that that davaoenos truly understand and saluted her for being true to herself. What if she didnt come, and policemen and civilians were hurt and killed, who to blame?? The sheriff? The people?? Sinong mag huhugas kamay?
Sasabihin din bah ng sheriff “trabaho lang?” kaya nagkagulo?! Thats bullsh!t!
Besides, the mayor will take whatever consequences , whether she might be disbarred or fired. It doesnt matter, cos davaoenos will still vote for her in the next elections to come.
youth4change philippines says
So far, I find your commentaries so intriguing…something to look forward to when Youth4Change Philippines returns to the blogging and twitting scene tomorrow…
manilamac says
I do have a problem with the mayor’s actions, though I agree with the cause she was defending. A look at this video clip, starting at about 1:00 up to 1:10 shows her dispatching her bodyguards (maroon shirts) to retrieve the sheriff–one of them even seems reluctant to do so, until a man I assume is his boss (in a white barong) seconds the order:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hL3cEEmATE&feature=youtube_gdata
Then, presumably a few moments later, according to this photo in the Inquirer, we see her making a second attack, this time with two bodyguards restraining the sheriff from even protecting his face from her blows:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/20424/duterte-faces-charges-for-hitting-court-sheriff%e2%80%94robredo
With this kind of action, I am less than impressed, no matter how much +on the right side of right” she might have been. The first attack could have just been ordinary (though very non-professional) frustration and righteous anger. But the second, the one portrayed in the Inquirer photo borders on a willingness to forego ordinary human rights.
wendy says
Hi Raissa, I like the way you defended the “Slugger” mayor.I especially like the phrase ” the right side of right!” and uhmmm, halo-halo makes this blog doubly interesting! Nice idea.
urban roamer says
nice photos of the Samar house interior. I actually did an entry about the places where the Balay and Samar camps were based, though I got only as far as the high walls. didn’t know Samar house was that nice inside.
http://urbanroamer.wordpress.com/2011/01/30/the-balay-and-the-samar-house-where-the-opposing-home-bases-lie/
raissa says
Yes, I saw just now your entry. I wasn’t able to get an exterior shot because it was raining that time.
As for the Balay House, that was where I did an ambush interview of then Senator Benigno Aquino III. before he decidd to run for President.
I don’t know if I got an exterior or interior of Balay. It had no architectruarl character. It was just a single-storey place, laid out like a restaurant inside, and very bare inside.
:)
CESAR ARELLANO says
That is the kind of mayors who knows how to treat a hardheaded subordinate,Davao city is her’s to safeguard and she should be followed. That sheriff deserve it because he under estimated Sarah, remember she is a Duterte the daughter of the best mayor in the land..Sarah, best regard to Rody, last time we met was when he was assigned by nene for his position as mayor of Davao at the Manila office of Senator Pimentel. 1986? was it?
Raisa, ang galing ng halohalo mo, magaling kang talaga.
Evangeline Eriksson says
Ha ha ha! Raissa, I have got an FB pal, young woman, married with kids in France. She is Visayan, niece to my old best friend. I did not know she was French citizen, so when I found out she lived in France I asked how was the relationship with the French husband. She said: “Vanjie ang Pinoy- hot, lolokohin ka na nanakawan ka pa ng cuarta!”