27/04/2026
RED FLAGS
When Rodrigo Duterte was dominating the stage—cursing, joking about murder and r**e, boasting about his womanizing, and generally behaving badly to shock and entertain—he divided Filipinos into two camps.
The first laughed, cheered, and applauded.
The second objected. They believed such behavior was unbecoming of someone who leads and represents the country. They refused to normalize it and called it out for what it was.
In response, the Type 1s labeled the Type 2s hypocrites. The latter called the former brainwashed.
Supporters insisted Duterte was simply being brutally frank—a leader with fists of steel but, deep inside, a heart of gold. Nagpapakatotoo lang. Keeping it real. Bastos pero mabuti ang puso. That is what his supporters wanted to believe.
Those who rejected him were dismissed as bleeding hearts—too easily shocked, too naïve to see beyond the crude bravado to the supposed goodness underneath. Luzon-centric elitists who refused to see the good in Duterte.
I was in the second group, obviously. But I tried my best to play my own devil’s advocate. I hoped I was wrong. Because being wrong about Duterte would have meant that the country was actually in good hands.
Six years of his presidency and the post-presidency revelations proved I was wrong to even give him the benefit of the doubt. The reality of Duterte’s leadership and legacy was worse than my fears.
There were the killings.
The deeper entrenchment of corruption.
The ballooning national debt from 5 to 13 trillion.
The misogyny, that inspired even more misogyny, displayed even in Congressional hearings.
The proliferation of fake news and troll farms.
The attacks on Rappler, ABS-CBN, and many journalists and media groups.
The mismanagement of COVID.
The Pharmally scandal.
The troubling case of Alice Guo.
The pro-China posture when it came to protecting our seas and economic zones.
The persecution of Leila de Lima.
The defunding of the Commission on Human Rights.
His family’s real and rumored involvement in drug use and trade.
His order to shoot rebels in their private parts.
The culture of impunity.
There were also the promises that never materialized: eliminating crime in three to six months, streamlining the bureaucracy, ending contractualization.
Then there were his own admissions—on stage, in hearings, interviews, and his midnight press conferences. Public boasts about killing people, disturbing remarks about molesting his household helper, admissions of fentanyl use, and false accusations against Antonio Trillanes IV.
It is a long list of disastrous failures and disgusting behavior.
What makes it even more disturbing is how many people defended him, made excuses for him, romanticized him—casting him as a populist antihero, almost like Robin Hood, when he was closer to the Pied Piper, leading followers who refused to see where the path was going. An emperor whose clothes were stained with the blood of innocents.
As Maya Angelou famously said: When someone shows you who they are, believe them.
Her warning is clear: do not romanticize bad behavior as a façade hiding good intentions.
The cruelty people display is not always a mask hiding goodness. Sometimes it is the clearest evidence of character.
And yet people still want to believe there is a kinder inner core. They refuse to accept visible actions as truth.
We see the same dynamic today with another leader: Donald Trump.
When I ask why Filipinos support him, I hear familiar explanations. He is a billionaire, so he must understand how to fix the economy—even though several of his companies went through bankruptcies involving billions of dollars. They say he gets things done. They say he supports the Christian faith.
His supporters often frame objections to him as complaints about personality rather than substance. His crude language, his insults, and his chaotic social media posts are dismissed as proof that he is simply authentic. They insist that beneath the rough exterior lie good intention, patriotism, and competence.
But the objections go much deeper than merely personality.
The surface behavior—his insults, his lies, his attacks on critics—is not merely rough style. It is the visible tip of a massive iceberg of something deeper, darker, and more sinister: a worldview shaped by racism, sexism, authoritarianism, crony capitalism, narcissism, and contempt for institutions.
Critics are often accused of nitpicking, of expecting perfection. That is not the issue.
The concern is the core of leadership itself.
How can someone claim to protect America and Americans while innocent citizens suffer abuses, even murder, under immigration enforcement policies? How can someone claim to defend Christian values while having been found liable for sexual abuse? How can someone claim decisive leadership while failing even to begin confronting powerful figures—including himself—connected to the networks of exploitation associated with Jeffrey Epstein?
Elsewhere in the world, leaders and elites implicated in wrongdoing are investigated, censured, removed from office, or stripped of their titles. Yet in the United States, Trump and his band of protectors and defenders often seem more concerned with covering up the truth, protecting the wealthy and powerful than with seeking justice for the victims.
We must stop romanticizing bad behavior.
Integrity is consistency. It is when actions align with words, when policies reflect the priorities leaders claim to hold. When what you see on the outside is a reflection of the good inside.
Movies and novels often teach us to root for flawed protagonists. They encourage us to believe that beneath roughness lies hidden goodness. Critical thinking does require us to look beneath the surface and understand the complexity of human behavior. Empathy helps us to understand and not to judge. Wisdom tells us there’s more to people than meets the eye.
But sometimes the red flags are not misunderstandings. Sometimes they are warnings.
Sometimes the man who behaves like an as***le is not a hero in disguise. He is simply revealing who he really is.
I hope we mature enough as citizens—strong enough in character, open enough in mind and heart—to distinguish real leadership from myth. To discern true heroes from fakes.
So that we do not fall into cults of personality.
So that the Rodrigos and Donalds of the world don’t get away with evil deeds. So that no other Duterte becomes president of this country.
So that we choose leaders based on facts, track records, policies, and genuine integrity—not spectacle, myth, or wishful thinking.
Sure. None of us is perfect. Our leaders will never be perfect.
But we still have ideals—standards for what leadership should be: competent, collaborative, inspiring, effective, and guided by real concern for the people they serve.
Someday we will be led by principled, competent, honest leaders. But first, we need to wake up to the red flags. 🚩
