DAVAO CITY – Thousands of supporters of former President Rodrigo Duterte gathered for an indignation rally here as he was enroute to his detention facility in The Netherlands on Wednesday evening, March 12.
KIDAPAWAN City residents hold a rally in support of former President Duterte on Wednesday evening.
His supporters, including local government officials, have been conducting candle-lighting and prayer rallies at Rizal Park since he was arrested on March 11.
The activity continued until late Wednesday night when several motorists drove around the city and honked their horns as a sign of protest.
On Thursday morning, March 13, hundreds of emergency responders here held a unity ride to show their support to the former President.
With their sirens on and honking horns, over a dozen vehicles, motorcycles and firetrucks participated in the unity ride.
In Kidapawan City in Cotabato, about 5,000 people occupied a portion of the highway in downtown area and staged a prayer rally.
Kidapawan City Mayor Pao Evangelista provided the space for the gathering after he ordered the closure of the portion of the highway in front of the public.
“The clinched fists raised from gathering crowds around the world, the uncontrolled tears secretly flowing out people's eyes, and the heart-wrenching chants of Filipinos ‘Duterte, Duterte, Duterte’ that echoed in the bustling city streets of the learned and in the hinterlands of simple yet good and warm rural folks, all these, my friends, are beyond intellectual dimension,” wrote Ermelo Libre, a seasoned lawyer in the city, on his Facebook page.
Libre added that the gathering was a rebirth of a long-lost sense of unity as one people, a global rise of a national consciousness, and a re-assertion that all government authority emanates from the people.
He said that the Duterte phenomenon is the peoples’ last chance to actualize a just and humane society. “A government that embodies our ideals and aspirations for the common good, and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace.”
While some people hated the former President, Libre believes that it is beyond doubt that Duterte put the Philippines on the global center stage like no other. ”So we can prove that we are not Filipinos for nothing!”
Aside from Kidapawan, people from major cities in Mindanao such as Butuan, Cotabato, Iligan, Koronadal, Tacurong, and Zamboanga City also joined prayer rallies as well as motorcades to show their support to the former President.
In Iligan City, Muslim residents burn the poster of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to protest his treatment of his predecessor during the serving of the warrant of arrest from the International Criminal Court.
Several prayers rallies were also been held in some towns in different provinces in Mindanao. Many areas in Mindanao are still organizing similar gatherings.
In the 2016 presidential elections, Duterte won in 23 of 27 provinces in Mindanao and became the first president from the island.