(Photo Credit: Esquire Philippines)

Let’s call a spade a spade. The Rodrigo Duterte presidential campaign is a well-oiled machine. In my personal and professional opinion, it has the most organized digital and social media operations amongst all the candidates. Their PR consultants, brilliant in their craft, have a deep understanding of Filipino culture and psyche. Imagine, from a humble, no-nonsense city mayor to the savior of a reeling and almost hopeless country.

Yes, that’s right. A reeling and hopeless country is the picture that they’re trying to paint.

Our country isn’t perfect. Far from it. There are a lot of flaws and there are a lot of daily struggles. There are a lot of tired and angry people. The people behind the campaign saw this as an opportunity. They knew that from this truth they could create a need for a Mayor Duterte. An environment can be created where Mayor Duterte’s character, kind of personality and brand of leadership will stand out.

So they went ahead and executed a well-thought out and well-implemented campaign on that very strong emotion-anger. They recruited a social media army. They commissioned people to find those that are angry and amplify their voices. Make it sound louder. Make it look more than what it really is. They hired people to be angry. They fed the anger with more reasons to be angrier. They spread bad news far and wide. I dare say some of those news they even orchestrated themselves. They drowned out the good news. When someone expresses anger and frustration, they’ll trumpet it. When someone looks at the bright side or offers a different perspective, the person is attacked and mobbed with curses and threats. Meant of course to discourage those people, and others, from disagreeing that ours is a hopeless case.

For a while they dominated the airwaves. Their version of the truth became the truth for a lot of us. People from all walks of life joined their cause. Mayor Duterte, as planned, became “the only hope”. Nevermind the character flaws, nevermind the risks, nevermind the repercussions of his actions, nevermind the incapabilities in other aspects of leadership, and nevermind the signs that he’s not truly fit to be the leader of a nation of more than a hundred million. Mayor Duterte became our last chance at saving this hopeless, god-forsaken country.

As the noise of angry people increased, a lot of people fell silent. Mostly to avoid the wrath of the angry ones. All they could do was to shake their heads and ask themselves, “What is happening. What have we become?”

But the Duterte campaign strategy underestimated something- The raw wisdom of the Filipino. “Malakas kutoban ang Pilipino.” We feel it when something is not right. It may creep slowly but it’s there. It will become noticeable. It will become undeniable. That “kutob” comes from the natural goodness of the Pinoy spirit. And believe you me, when push comes to shove, we will follow our gut.

Days before the elections, the tide has somewhat turned. A lot of people have decided to take a stand versus the angry sentiment, both real and paid. They’ve decided to fight back believing that theirs is the right kind of fight. A good kind, a human kind, the Filipino kind.

Listen. The airwaves are no longer dominated by hate and anger. It is now being balanced by voices of hope and reason. This has allowed objectivity to set in and discussions to take place. As a result, people now have a stronger conviction on who to give their one and only vote to.

Mayor Duterte might still win. Or maybe he won’t. But the exaggerated, over the top, angry sentiment has brought out a good thing. It made us search for what’s real. And in the process, it strengthened the reminder that there are still a lot of things that need to change. But more importantly, it made a lot of people realize that they can be part of that change. Hopefully, it’s a positive kind of change and not the angry and fearful kind.