By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
So, Congressman Pulong Duterte says he’ll have his lawyers “authenticate” the viral video where he appears to headbutt and attack a man in a Davao bar while holding a knife. Fine. But if he truly thinks it’s fake or a deepfake, why also admit — in the same breath — that the video is “an old video”?
Which is it then — fake or old? Because either way, it confirms this: something violent did happen, and he was part of it.
The video alone shows what looks like an aggressive, entitled public official ready to maul. The complaint filed by trader Kristone Patria fills in the blanks — with serious charges: human trafficking, attempted murder, and more. The incident, he says, happened just this February 2025.
Pro-Duterte circles can cry “tanim-kaso” all they want and massacre the reputation of the victim in this case as an alleged “pimp” or scum of the earth. But the fact remains: the case is filed and Pulong must answer to it. No person deserves that treatment as seen in the video.
As for the voters of Davao, I don’t think they’ll be so easily cowed to express their true sentiments on the ballot. Davaoeños are brave, not blind. Nobody likes being bullied or oppressed and continues to support that bully as their representative in Congress. Come May 12, I wouldn’t be surprised if they teach Pulong a real lesson.
P20 rice rollout
The P20 rice rollout — suddenly, miraculously, after three years — is not governance. It’s electioneering dressed in palusot. For nearly two years, Bongbong Marcos was both the elected Chief Executive and self-appointed Agriculture Secretary and this much-hyped campaign promise remained dust in the wind. Prices of staple goods have blown up due to inflation and economic mismanagement — yet here comes the government, two weeks before the polls, ready to subsidize rice down to P20 per kilo? What changed? Not the economy. Just their survey numbers.
So let’s not pretend. This is a desperate attempt to secure votes for administration bets. It reeks of the shameless, the calculated, and the obvious — a move so brazen it borders on a blatant violation of Comelec principles. This is tantamount to vote buying, even if they hypocritically claim that the rollout officially begins after the elections.
Even Marcos’s own 2022 campaign manager-turned-critic — now opposition Senate bet — Vic Rodriguez couldn’t help but ask: Why only now? That’s because he knows the intention.
To support that thought, Speaker Romualdez convened over 100 lawmakers and dozens of party-list representatives last Thursday, telling them to intensify grassroots campaigning for the administration’s flailing Senate slate. The timing is infallible. The intention is clear.
Let’s slap ourselves awake: this is not public service. This is political survival masked as subsidy. My advice: to my fellow Filipinos and voters — avail of this rollout. Buy this rice at P20 per kilo. You deserve it, especially those who work hard to put food on the table. But vote wisely. This subsidy came from taxpayers. We must reap its benefits — but owe this administration nothing when we face the ballot.
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SHORT BURSTS. For comments or reactions, email firingline@ymail.com or tweet @Side_View via X.Read current and past issues of this column at http://www.thephilbiznews.com
