By MORTZ
C. ORTIGOZA
One of the
major reasons why Senator Grace Poe was overtaken in the polls by presidential rival Rodrigo
Duterte more than a month before the May 9, 2016 national election was because
the feisty mayor was unequivocal that he would see dreaded drug pushers
dead.
16 million voters, gee whiz, applauded
Duterte whenever he threatened in that hustling to turn red Manila Bay with the very blood of his pet peeve the narcotics peddlers.
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| FLIP-FLOPPED. Then presidential rivals Rodrigo Duterte and Grace Poe were the only candidates in the Second Presidential Debate in Cebu who raised their hands that they were for Death Penalty in case they win the May 9, 2016 Election. Duterte won that election while Poe, an incumbent senator, just like in her 2013 senatorial run volte-face as anti - death punishment advocate. PHOTO CREDIT: PHILIPPINE STAR |
"Manalo
ako kasi because of breakdown of law and order (I will win because of the breakdown of law and order). I do not want to commit a crime
but if by chance, God will place me there, magbantay kayo. Yung 1,000, magiging
100,000. Diyan mo makita tataba yung isda sa Manila Bay. Diyan ko kayo
itapon (The 1,000 dead drug pushers would become 100,000. The fish at Manila Bay would go fat because I am going to feed you there)".
The crowd cheered wildly every time he repeated this pledge.
He added his vitriol with the following:
He added his vitriol with the following:
"Pag ako ang pinagbigyan ng Diyos maupo
diyan, mismo ang Diyos, iiyak yan. Tingnan mo (if God allows me to be president God will weep for what I would do to narcotics pushers)," he told a group of applauding transport operators and drivers in Paranaque.
I saw too how the multitude in Dagupan City turned gaga whenever he declared with tongs and hammer this kind of pronouncement.
"Delikado si Grace Poe dito," I told myself in the sideline.
I saw too how the multitude in Dagupan City turned gaga whenever he declared with tongs and hammer this kind of pronouncement.
"Delikado si Grace Poe dito," I told myself in the sideline.
Poe
volte-face on the death punishment.
In 2013, as a campaign promised for her senatorial run, she told the hoi-polloi she was anti-death punishment. In the 2016 election she said she was pro-death punishment.
In 2013, as a campaign promised for her senatorial run, she told the hoi-polloi she was anti-death punishment. In the 2016 election she said she was pro-death punishment.
In my
March 11, 2017 interview with her, after the Induction and Turnover Ceremonies of
the JCI Dagupan Bangus Chapter in Dagupan City, she told me she was against
death penalty.
