FOR a week now, Davao City has been in the limelight both in mainstream and social media thanks to two incidents, one involving force majeure and the other a show of tour de force.
First to hit the headlines was the June 28 flash flood, the most destructive Davao had ever experienced in its history as a city. The totally unexpected disaster claimed the lives of 30 people and left a wide swath of destruction the extent of which authorities are still estimating up to this writing.
The second incident, which indubitably outstripped the first in terms of generating both passing interest and genuine concern, involved Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio’s manhandling of Regional Trial Court sheriff Abe Andres for refusing to heed her request for a two-hour delay in the demolition of houses of informal squatters in sitio Soliman, Barangay Agdao-Centro, about high noon of July 1st. Almost instantly, the punching incident was on national television, radio and the Net, including the You-Tube. Netizens of Facebook and other social media platforms feasted on it. Expectedly, the pros praised Sara’s pro-poor stance, while the cons condemned her actuation. For delivering a tour de force against the sheriff for the sake of the poor informal settlers, staking her position (as mayor) and profession (as lawyer) in the process, she gained praises. However, she was pilloried for defying an order of the court and physically hurting a lowly sheriff.
It maybe asked: what did Inday gain from the incident–fame or notoriety? If one has been paying more than just a kibitzer’s attention to the media coverage and the opinions generated by the Agdao fracas and deign to make comparisons, he can say that Davao City’s first lady mayor gained more positive, than negative, recognition because of the unfortunate incident.
Some of her detractors who understood the social dimensions of the punching incident, admit, albeit grudgingly, that Inday’s victory in the polls is assured if elections were held tomorrow.
The latest positive twist in the political fortunes of Inday Sara is a well-publicized statement of RTC Executive Judge Isaac Robillo Jr. that the demolition order which the court sheriff insisted on, and for which he got the four one-dimensional punches from the mayor, was illegal.
Citing Republic Act No. 7279, Judge Robillo agreed with the argument of Vice Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte, a veteran city prosecutor (not an ex-cop as a national daily erroneously stated twice) and maverick father of the lady mayor, that the July 1 demolition fell short of the 30-day notice required by law.
And yet, the Quezon City RTC Sheriff Association called Mayor Sara’s punching of the sheriff a “brazen mockery” of the court process.
Of course, this is not to say that the outcome of the investigation by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and other agencies, whether started motu propio or by virtue of a complaint by the aggrieved, is a foregone conclusion.
Still, the incorrigible optimists among Dabawenyos, including those who view the punching incident as comic tour de force, wonder if Davao has earned a psychic income of sort from the episode, given that it badly needs all-out publicity to advance its tourism and investment agenda?
Indeed, are more tourists and investors who are awash with cash, now asking in earnest where in the world is Davao City?
