Saying goodbye to PRRD

AT noontime of June 30, 2022, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, also known by his initials PRRD, will bid us adieu to become private citizen Digong. I am not fit to do a review of his term as the 16th president. I would rather discuss how he touched the lives of many of our fellow Filipinos. And as to how one may describe his impact on our lives depends on where one sits politically or the objectivity lens one may scrutinize him with.

Let me disclose for the first time that I did not vote for him in the May 2016 national elections. That is the only partisan political act I am allowed to do as a Marine and an erstwhile member of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). But as to who I voted for (and who my fellow service members chose) does not matter that much. Because the one who garners the majority vote becomes our president and my commander-in-chief whom I will protect and defend with my life from all enemies of the State — foreign or domestic.