” The embattled Duterte Youth leader has sought the help of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte after getting brickbats from several sectors, including the Commission on Elections (COMELEC)”
Photo credit to Nino Orbeta, Philippine Daily Inquirer
When one looks at Ronald Cardema, he seemed to be the very epitome of a Hitlerian Youth– cropped military-style hair fixed by a heavy application of hair gel set in a square face with deceptive eyes hidden by optics which makes him look like a professor. He is an unabashed supporter of what he termed as “DUTERTISMO” which until now, no one knows what it is all about. Plain and simply, Cardema is a strong supporter of the President whom he claims a slice for actively working for PRRD’s election last 2016. Or so he claims.
Duterte Youth, the organisation which Cardema formed late 2016, seeks to defend the policies of the Duterte administration. In several occasions, this organisation was seen or projected themselves as a counterforce against “yellow forces” and “Leftist” groups. What is entirely problematic about the Duterte Youth and Cardema is the lack of a clear definition of what this creature is all about. It just sprouted out of the woodwork out of the sheer desire of its founders to be “in the thick of things”–and probably nothing more. Meaning, its ration etre is spotty and its demise certain–probably after two years.
Sadly, there are about 300 plus thousand Filipino voters who believed and voted for this organisation. One can say that these are actual numbers of true Duterte supporters who reposed their blind faith upon this organisation upon the belief that this organisation does, indeed, pursue the very same ideals and aspirations that Duterte and his minions held as their own. What is so sad is that Duterte Youth claims to represent the youth while admitting that most, if not all of its members, are way past their personal primes and most of their votes came not from the youth sector but from somewhere else.
With their very existence under extreme doubt, the Duterte Youth even willed themselves to the very edge of the precipice by their very own representative, Ronald Cardema.
Cardema, if you ask the true-blue Dutertistas, is a disgrace. He is nowhere near the very values which Mr. Duterte held. One value is honesty. When Cardema filed his certificate of nomination as a representative, he misrepresented himself when he gave his age at 34. It is too incredulous for some one like Cardema to be unaware of the age requirement for this youth nomination which is not a second late than 30 years old.
How can Cardema even claim to be a Duterte supporter when he is unlike his idol, President Duterte. Duterte is known as a stickler of the law. By not following the law, Cardema just showed to all how irreverent, irrelevant and irresponsible he truly is.
Cardema cries extortion, a show which only Comelec Commissioner Rowena Guanzon dismissed in a outright fashion. I would give credit to Cardema if Guanzon does not have the integrity and the record to show of. She is a thorn of the yellow hordes yet Guanzon acts more than Cardema for expressing herself forcefully especially when she saw a very grave infraction of the law.
I am not dignifying the charge of corruption by Cardema, because the very fact that he misrepresented and is still stressing that he is legally right when the very law stares down upon him with extreme contempt shows corruption in its basest form. Cardema has just shown his true color–that of an opportunist whose true desire is not to pursue the ideals of Mr. Duterte but of his very own. Cardema needs employment, that explains why he so assiduously pursues this nomination because this will give him not just a fantabulous amount of monies thru salaries– he salivates the exercise of power.
Cardema now wants his idol, Mr. Duterte, to break the law by asking his help on Guanzon. He claims to be the victim here, but everyone knows the truth. Cardema is a victim of himself.
For calling for presidential intervention, Cardema is in effect, asking the President to break his oath and his promise never to use his position as president to influence any regulatory or constitutional body at that. Duterte is no fool. Sadly, Cardema does not know Mr. Duterte.
By calling on the president for help, Cardema’s true character reveals itself–that of a middle-aged man who thinks he can use Duterte for his personal and political aims. He is no Duterte and definitely, not at all, a member of the youth sector.
