Those who claim they play decent chess are a bounty. They are a dime for a dozen.
Those who do not claim however are few. And they are to be feared.
By their sweet disguise, they have successfully let down their foes’ guards enough to orchestrate a gambit and ultimately ruling the boards with a checkmate.
In the most recent developments in the upcoming polls, the man whom, many self-proclaimed political pundits tag as uncouth in language, immoral in ways and unstatesman in manner played a gambit.
It was a gamble he was sure could expose the weakness in the opponents’ defenses. And when it did, we expect him now enjoying the spoils like what every successful businessman would do. He did not.
While he could be sipping margaritas in a resort in Samal after he successfully cornered his Trillions; he stayed low.
Kill time was at hand and at the sign of a tilt, the bishops, the horses and the rooks moved in for the kill.
Just as the key pieces jumped in for the kill, Duterte’s daring move also exposed where the fire was coming.
And from there, the people saw the snipers from their high perch, and then, just like every sad telenovela, the viewers took the attack like it is for them.
So, instead of putting the man down, the attack enthroned him even farther, nearly doubling in the lead against his closest rival.
His move was a classic overkill of the pretentious in us.
While continually raving high in surveys, presidential front runner candidate Rodrigo Duterte fed fodder to the already dried brains of his opponents enough to burn them and their rabid supporters.
At least, this man who is rousing a hornets nest by his unpopular pronouncements, is supposed to be treated as trash in a game where every candidate desperately paints ultra clean image of self.
The fact is, he leaves everyone with self projected clean image like trash, despised and fittingly disposed. And we wonder why.
A known fiscal who picks a job representing the state in stamping out criminals, presidential survey front-runner Rodrigo Duterte, may have brought the fight out of the courts by throwing his hat late into the presidential fray.
Maybe the desperation in the way the courts work in this country did it for him and that augers well for electors with asphyxiated hope for change in the way things are running.
What is certain however is, in a city that’s has seen so much of the loony status quo of crimes and optional punishment, the fiscal used the harsh hand of the law to beat out a system that straightened out the bent system, at least in Davao.
The usual “if you can’t beat them, join them” seemingly works not for the man whose decision to transform Davao into exhibit number one in good governance is damning evidence.
Over allegations of using extra judicial killings, the alarmists including those who claim to be morally upright members of the Catholic Church howled.
Seeing this as a potential take down move, the opportunistic candidates all to eager to collect on the Duterte spoils joined in the barking bout.
Too bad for them, the gambit worked by exposing even the media oligarchs of their wrecked and tarnished stances of bias and whatever-it-is-called but objectivity.
So what do we have?
A guy who would not pass for a saint, not one ordinarily fancied as a political animal that oligarchs can tame.
He is one brilliant chess player who can exact a checkmate from the worst situation and force a stalemate from an attack.
In a country immersed in a tangle like this, it’s not a saint or an animal we need.
Picking him is a risk, and risking gets us somewhere.