Good and Bad Lessons I Learned from President Duterte

Good and Bad Lessons I Learned from President Duterte

by Arch Ian Jay Bantilan

I have a confession to make. I was not a Duterte supporter. But the news kept getting interesting. In fact, it was amusing. On one crazy campaign trail, we heard about the pope, to being deprived of rape, to the violence of passionate rallies, I couldn’t help but think. This guy probably has something right going his way.

I have never seen Rodrigo Duterte smirk. His face always looked serious but the sly smug smile is undoubtedly fixed on his forehead in a “sincerely innocent” kind of way. Here’s my take on what I learned from the man.

Lessons from the Controversial President

Lesson 1: If you hear anything impossible, come up with something equally preposterous.

Once he was asked by media about something that was clearly going to mislead the public with his answer. His response?

Tall tales. He bragged on about the time he caught a few drug pushers and cooked them in oil, he also went out and killed a thousand criminals. Then he tried to skin them and eat them alive.

 

Lesson 2: Come in late but Fresh.

You have probably done it in school. You went in while your professor was midway into the lesson. Now, my friend the spotlight is on you!

The presidentiable started out late by choice. It was supposedly heard that “everyone” is urging him to run for president.

Poetry: Once in a Life

Once in a Life

By: Ian Jay Bantilan
Written July 15, 2014

La Bella Pricepessa – Bantilan Style

With a quiet gaze you move me
Your simple prodding they turn
My Strong resolve like a dummy
How long before my mind burn?

Some of the prettiest creatures dent
Their wiles and crafty measures sent
Yet their plans do not make me bend
My love-immune systems stand.

From Inkblots to Dark Stained White Art Exhibit 2

I remember as a kid drawing eyes on a peice of paper. The eyes are perhaps the most expressive and delicate feature in the human mind’s recognition circuits. Doing anything for positive or negative impact starts with the eyes. And I would try to master them. I researched how Chinese, Nordic, European, Malay and South European (Basically Mediteranean People) would look. I’d love to have the Blue Panda pen create its magic as I to be better and better everyday. It added to perhaps about some 30-50 eyes alone. And that was one page that day, for the whole month it might be hard to count how many.

 

The Artist near the Burj Al Arab

My goal at the time was not to perfect drawing the eyes but to create a perfect girl on paper. And as m personal legend would put it: find that girl wherever she is. I never just drew eyes, there were the typical stuff, biceps and chest, arms and legs.

Like Voltron. 🙂 I guess that really reveals my age.

It’s been a long way since those days. The tradgedy was, I seldom created something significant. I was always practicing and felt that any work should be perfect from its first line. This explains some of my philosophy behind the title Dark Stained White.

Dark Stained White Part 2 – La Salle Museum

Dark Stained White is a collection of artworks and poetry

I Now Stand Here

I Now Stand Here
by Arch Ian Jay Bantilan

Three years into this goal, feeling battered is an understatement.

Written August 31, 2013 after HRM MBA Class. 

I now stand here in this wide field in the University where I have grown, studied and learned when I was a kid. Where I gaze, used to be endless fields of grass fenced by Eucalyptus, Pines and the eternal sky. Now I see fields of green disciplined by constant mowing for the purpose of Sports. This is a game of strength and will of which no other use of body but head and foot. In this Grandstand, I have witnessed formidable teams and mythic clubs who battled for supremacy in this arena.

Call to the Sleepless

Call to the Sleepless
by Arch Ian Jay Bantilan

Now my mind’s racing again.
Restless.
Can’t sleep.

For a moment i wish I was just depressed, angry, sad, happy.
Just anything but restless.
So I gotta wake up while the whole world sleeps,
and write it all away.

The opened eye of the sleepless

Because this chaos of neurons will spill from light blue to red to dark black. And the frustration of finding sleep will wake me into the morning. I rise to avoid the deep black. I rise and click away. . .