We share below an open letter of netizen Gege Cruz pouring out in social media her disgust with the 16 million voters who handed the presidency to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte in 2016. (This version is 500 words shorter than Cruz’s original rant that we edited to fit space.)

You’ll never hear the end of it from me for your Duterte vote. And the more intelligent, the more educated, the more well-bred, the more “Christian” you are, the more I blame you. Shame on you!

Yes, it’s a free country, and you have the right to vote according to your free will. But as a citizen, you also have the responsibility to vote for the best candidate. To study the facts available to help us choose a leader who would do the best job of leading us through the challenges of a developing country.

We will always disagree about who the best candidate was. But why did we have to vote for the worst? Yes, the worst. The facts pointed to that.

A truckload of facts, if you had bothered to go beneath the very shallow surface, was accessible even through Google. And as the campaign progressed, you did not have to dig for reasons not to vote for him. They were glaring, flashing, screaming. Red flags galore. In the debates. Every time he opened his mouth.

He had no economic plans whatsoever. None! No solutions to unemployment. No vision. No cohesive strategy. No track record. All promises. No substance. Remember that cringe-worthy speech before the Makati Business Club? There he was in all his ampaw (empty/hollow) glory.

You, who worked for corporations, managed departments and companies, who made your team work overtime to finish annual business plans, so that your boss and his/her boss would approve your plans and budgets. You forgot all that managerial thinking, and voted for that incompetent, empty, noisy bet who said he would remove algebra from the curriculum, who said that he knew nothing about economics!

And please, do not point at Davao as the model for his achievements. That insults the civic communities, the entrepreneurs, the investors, who were the true movers of the city’s economy. If you ever believed the myth about his solving the city’s crime and drug problems, then you have wasted your intellect and education. No. 1 in murder. No. 2 in rape. No. 4 in crime. And never ever got rid of drugs. After his 20-year rule.

You, doctors, who voted for this Fentanyl user because you were angry at P-Noy and Kim Henares. You, entrepreneurs, who voted for him because tila feeling niyo mas madaling maglagay pag siya na ang pangulo.

You, teachers, corporate trainers, communication and leadership speakers – found substance, form, value, meaning, where there was none. You heard him, saw him deliver speeches that were mad, senseless rambles that disrespected the audience as well as the targets of his diatribes, and then you laughed, and applauded, and called him authentic!

You, parents, who expect so much from your children and from yourselves, talking about values, education, and etiquette, knowing that we live in a civilized world where manners and common respect make us human and humane, but expected so much less than that from somebody who was going to lead this country through that much-vaunted change, who would automatically be a role model. You were willing to expose your impressionable youth to this madman, permitting him to influence your son and tell your daughter that catcalling and rape jokes were fine.

You political butterflies, who forgot your ideologies, your mandate, the masses you must defend and serve, just to get your feet inside Malacañang.

You, who were there at EDSA to kick out the dictator, you heard him say that he would resign to get Marcos in. And you voted for him!

You, chauvinistic, abusive, philandering men who found justification in this misogynist – oh what can I say to you?

And you, my fellow woman. He wanted to be first in line to gangbang a missionary. He paraded his mistresses in front of his wife. He kissed women on the lips during his campaign, even as he boasted of a common-law wife and a couple more women on the side. All that did not make you rethink your vote. And some of you even called him Tatay, or mylabs.

No track record at the national level. Dismal performance as Congress Representative – nanood lang ng sine. Dysfunctional personal life. Physical and mental health in question. Admissions of killing criminals outside the justice system. At alam naman natin lahat ng ito even during the campaign. Pero ganun eh. Iba siya. Totoong tao.

And then there’s the Death Squads! How could that have been okay with you? You didn’t know about it? You didn’t know how bad it was?

One reason I got from friends – because he’s the only one who can achieve radical change that this country badly needs. Bullcrap! There was never ever any empirical proof of that. You just believed the macho stories. You bought into the myth they built with manipulated polls and paid trolls.

It was a vote of desperation. And you chose to be desperate at a time when our country was at its best economic standing in a long time. When we were emerging as a new tiger. Desperation makes you stupid, you know.

Because you were angry about traffic, frustrated with the MRT, outraged by laglag bala. You voted for the one who only said he would solve those problems, without presenting any viable solution, just imaginary numbers and ridiculous deadlines. Naniwala naman kayo!

You just felt like voting for him. Basta. And look at where that vote has brought us. Loans piling up. Peso slipping. Jobs and investments dwindling. Grants disappearing. Our islands being grabbed from us. Corruption growing. Nepotism, cronyism, incompetence, the death of meritocracy. Wala nang bigas! May crime at drugs pa rin! At may traffic pa rin!

Eto pa __ “Hindi siya trapo!” Tingnan mo ngayon – trapo na siya, at isa pa siyang malaking doormat – Welcome, China! Our Islands, Yours Na. Tinapon ang ating victory sa Hague. At binenta ng libre ang bansa natin. With loan interests on our side. Hindi pa natin tapos bayaran ang mga utang ni Marcos, eto na naman!

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Advisory: All Postscripts can be accessed at manilamail.com. Follow author on Twitter as @FDPascual. Email feedback to fdp333@yahoo.com.