Category: marcos

Kinidnap nga ba #Marcos86 #Duterte2025

Since Maduro‘s “cowardly kidnapping” by the U.S. a few days ago, nabuhay ang mga paratang na si Marcos Sr din ay kinidnap ng America noong Feb 1986, at si Duterte ay kinidnap ng MarcosJr admin at isinuko sa ICC noong Mar 2025.

kidnap verb: to seize, detain, or carry away a person by unlawful force or fraud, often to hold them prisoner for ransom or in furtherance of another crime; essentially, stealing a person, taking someone against their will. synonyms abuct, seize, snatch, or capture

No debate, Maduro was kidnapped. Read Reuters‘ “Mock house, CIA source and Special Forces: The US operation to capture Maduro”.  https://www.reuters.com/

But please, not Marcos in ’86, kahit pa iyan mismo ang bukang-bibig ni Imelda nang nasa Hawaii na sila, na kinidnap sila ng mga Kano, na ang usapan ay sa Paoay sila dadalhin, desidido kasi si Makoy na mag-regroup ang AFP loyalists sa Ilocos, the plan was to retake Manila — which would have meant bloodshed, mapapalaban ang People Power. When Cory was warned, she asked the Americans to take him away and the Americans agreed and Marcos had no choice. Marcos’s mistake was to accept the Americans’ offer of help to escape the palace and to take them wherever they wanted. He could have flown to Paoay under his own steam. Presidential choppers had been on standby since Day 3 Feb 24.

And please, not Duterte in 2025. He was arrested and taken to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity. He knew it was coming. Duterte’s mistake was: umuwi pa siya. He was already in Hong Kong for that rally. We all imagined he was asking China for asylum and so it surprised us all na umuwi pa siya. China said no kasi? He had no other options? Hubris? He was assured perhaps that PBBM wouldn’t dare? At the end of the day he went along and climbed up that plane with no resistance and minimum assistance.

Kung tutuusin, yung kay Maduro ay pinaghandaan nang bonggang-bongga ng mga Kano so much so that the safe house proved unsafe and it was all out of Maduro’s hands. Pero yung kay Marcos hinged on his mistake of accepting the Americans’ offer of an escape route out of the Palace. At yung kay Duterte hinged on the mistake of coming home pa from Hong Kong. Kumbaga, from the frying pan into the fire.

Imee’s last-ditch effort for Duterte

After the initial shock of seeing, hearing, Imee Marcos on stage sa INC rally at her dramatic worst yet, publicly lambasting her brother for alleged drug addiction and pleading that he leave public office and seek treatment because she couldn’t bear it if she were to lose him…. I could only marvel at the desperation — ang lalim, at ang haba, ng hugot, harking all the way back to martial law and metrocom times, which only reminded of Archimedes Trajano, doesn’t she realize?!?

Like Philippine Star editor Amy Pamintuan, I have yet to see PBBM acting or looking like he was high or stoned in any of his televised appearances.

AMY: … I learned to spot people high on drugs, or who were addicted. The habit takes a visible toll on the body. So far, I haven’t seen either BBM or his wife in a public engagement with bloodshot eyes or looking, talking or behaving like they’re high on drugs. https://www.philstar.com/

On the other hand, I certainly have memories of the former President Rodrigo Duterte stumbling, talking weird, looking half-asleep, barely paying attention, like he was high or stoned on something or other, remember? even if DDS propagandists seem to have forgotten, deliberately, as if the current mess only started with BBM and it’s all his fault, the floods, the corruption, the economic crisis. As though Duterte never happened.

And yet I have no doubt that Imee’s meltdown is Duterte-related. Matagal na siyang kinukulit ng mga DDS to confirm the “vangag” allegations, thinking that it would be enough to inflame a critical mass that could compel BBM to step down, especially since the “kidnap” and rendition of Duterte to The Hague. Marami ring nagalit sa kanya because she wouldn’t do it, and I actually thought she never would because, you know, family — blood is thicker than water and all that.

But now that she has given in, spoken out, what flashed through my mind was a VP Sara speech back in June, noong bitbit niya si Imee kung saan-saan, Qatar, The Hague, and finally Malaysia, addressing OFWs and referring to Imee as her “hostage”.

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte has challenged Sen. Imee Marcos to bring Rodrigo Duterte back to the Philippines, noting that it was the senator’s brother, President Marcos, who had ordered the former president arrested and turned over to the Interpol and the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“I always invite Senator Marcos wherever I go. I brought her along because I told her, it would not be me who will bring former president Duterte back to the Philippines because it was your brother who sent him to The Hague. You should bring him [home] to the Philippines,” the Vice President said in her speech during the 127th Independence Day celebration in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The Vice President said Imee will remain as her “hostage” until her father is released. https://www.philstar.com/headlines/

It’s been eight months since Digong was arrested and detained in the Hague, and there doesn’t seem to be much hope left of a homecoming. Kaufman has been doing what he can to delay the confirmation of charges, from interim-release request to lack-of-jurisdiction challenge, and lately the mental-unfitness claim which, even if proven true, won’t mean Digong would be released just like that. He would remain in custody, undergo treatment, and every 120 days he’d be tested again, and again, just in case his mental unfitness is temporary, or something like that. https://www.abs-cbn.com/

Back in August, Kaufman was also wanting to speak with PBBM about negotiating the return of Duterte to the Philippines. The thinking seems to be that PBBM, if he cared to, could prevail on the ICC to let him take custody of Digong, and let Philippine courts hear and decide the cases against him and his accomplices. But because PBBM won’t play along, their only recourse is to  remove him somehow and install Sara in the Palace, from which vantage point she could try her damndest to harass the ICC into releasing Digong, maybe with the help of tyrants Trump and Netanyahu.

In fairness, Imee for her part did hold those Senate hearings on the irregularities attending Duterte’s arrest, and then there was that Senate resolution relayed to the ICC requesting house arrest for the former president due to health and age concerns. But all ineffectual, as in, walang epek. She must have been under pressure to do something more, try harder.

Then came the flood-control corruption scandal. Parang heaven-sent siguro, the chance to charge BBM himself for corruption, and Zaldy proved to be the willing balimbing but his paputok videos proved to be duds, raising more questions than answers. Imee had no choice but to step up, give it her best shot, while the INC JIL KOJC UPI DDS peeps were still out in the streets, maybe get them sad angry agitated enough… except that INC cut short the protest rally after her speech and sent the people home instead.

Bottom line, Imee did it not out of love for country or family, rather, out of utang-na-loob kay Digong for the Libingan ng mga Bayani favor, which happened almost exactly nine years ago, she managed to remind in that very disjointed overwrought speech. So, yes, yun pa rin ang puno’t dulo, the hero’s burial, which makes me wonder if it was worth it. What if they had settled for an Ilocos burial instead. Then Sara would not be holding Imee hostage.

Firing Torre

Read “Big questions on Torre’s ouster” by lawyer Joel Ruiz Butuyan.

A reading of the laws governing the Napolcom (Republic Act No. 6975 as amended by RA 8551) does not show that Napolcom possesses the power to review and overturn the PNP chief’s assignment of police generals to top brass positions, as claimed by the agency. The powers of Napolcom are primarily for “policy and program coordination” and administrative disciplinary proceedings against erring police officers. Its “administrative control and operational supervision” over the PNP are clearly for the limited purpose of developing policies and promulgating rules and regulations,” which do not include the power to review and reverse designation or transfer of officers made by the PNP chief to high-ranking positions occupied by colonels to generals, contrary to Napolcom’s claim.

… However, the President’s decision to remove Torre as PNP chief is valid because the President has absolute discretion to appoint and remove the PNP chief. But there are big and gnawing questions: Was the President misled into believing that Napolcom possesses the power to review and overturn the PNP chief’s designation of top officers, and that Torre blatantly violated the agency’s exercise of its powers? Did Napolcom overturn Torre’s reassignment of officers upon direct orders of the President?

Makes you wonder what’s really going on and if there’s any truth to The PH Insider story shared by MaxDefense Philippines on Facebook that Torre’s sudden removal has to do with his “refusal to sign a Request for Endorsement and Budget Support to Congress for an additional Php8 billion funding for the PNP for the acquisition of 80,000 units 5.56mm assault rifles for FY2026”?

The justification for such acquisition was said to be due to the PNP now focused on taking-over internal security operations from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, in which the PNP currently has capability gaps in terms of many aspects including firepower, and that its current inventory of rifles are insufficient.

The report said Gen. Torre refused to sign as he believe the acquisition is excessive for a civilian agency like the PNP, which had him in disagreement with Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Sec. Jonvic Remulla.

Meanwhile the DDS are on celebratory mode, which makes you wonder if firing Gen. Torre is some kind of concession to the Duterte camp that heartily hates the fired PNP Chief for the Quiboloy and Digong arrests.

REGINE CABATO:
Facebook 26 August 

The DDS are having a field day with news of police chief Nicholas Torre’s dismissal. My disinformation-related take: Not only does it send mixed signals about the Marcos administration’s commitment to human rights-related reform, but they have also thrown to the trolls one of its most high profile officials capable of tackling the pro-Duterte disinformation machine.

Just last week, Torre exposed an organized smear campaign against the police. He pointed to a coordinated attempt among DDS vloggers spreading viral video to depict “lawlessness” in the Philippines. But these videos were from Indonesia and Vietnam, and the one video from the Philippines was taken out of context. What does this mean? There is an organized attempt to make crime in the Philippines look worse than it actually is, all toward: 1) campaigning for a Duterte return to power, and 2) spreading the ideology of killing, as opposed to reform, as a solution for crime.

Torre’s publicity stunt against Baste Duterte last month was another rare moment: he was seen as standing up to a bully, successfully fundraised some PhP 20 million for flood victims, and won some amor among soft Duterte supporters. (I’ve seen comments going: ‘I’m a DDS, but Baste was wrong this time…’)

Torre has proven himself to not only be efficient in tasks that few others would have gamely executed — particularly the arrests of Duterte and Quiboloy — but in a skill so many of our public figures lack: seizing the narrative in a Duterte-driven information ecosystem.

He turns defense into offense, and it sends DDS trolls scrambling, which is why they dedicate so much of their time making transphobic video reels that liken Torre to social media influencer Diwata, in an attempt to emasculate and undermine him. The flooding of laugh news reactions on news items about his dismissal, and the gleeful comment of senator Imee Marcos about karma, show that the Duterte disinformation machine does not rest.

Torre being out of the way after pushing for the takedown of 1,000 fake news posts allows the Duterte machine to recuperate, and the curtly worded dismissal letter gives trolls and vloggers another bullet for their smear campaign. This also raises questions about whether the next police chief will make similar commitments to information integrity among and affecting its ranks.

The smear campaign against Torre should not be taken in isolation: it is part of broader smear against career officials in law enforcement, including the military and coast guard, because the DDS machinery wants Duterte loyalists in these positions instead. The script against Torre is also being levelled against AFP chief Romeo Brawner, PCG spokesman Jay Tarriela, and so on. This script includes accusing them of being foreign hacks or sympathizers, using distraction to undermine reform, and it comes from the same influencer talking heads of the DDS sphere. The accusation that Torre, et al are ICC or U.S. puppets is especially hypocritical and ironic, given that these pro-Duterte networks have been found to have ties to China.

These DDS online reactions are not, of course, a clear indicator of the true pulse of public opinion. But they are an indicator that Marcos is losing the optics war.

 

SONA in the time of multiple distractions and woes

A comprehensive situationer on the eve of BBM’s 4th SONA from my favorite Manila Times columnist —  a farmer and a thinker who doesn’t shoot from the hip. 

By Marlen V. Ronquillo

TRADITION dictates that the spotlight should be trained on the president, and the president alone, not only during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) — to take place tomorrow, July 28 — but also days before, during preparations for the annual event. But the Dutertes, former allies of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., are not bound by this tradition and will say anything, fair or foul, to divert the nation’s attention from him. Inviolable political traditions are apparently not part of the Dutertes’ dictionary.

Vice President Sara Duterte, who is facing impeachment charges over her alleged failure to conform to basic ledger and accounting practices and to get the names of her spending recipients right, delved into the more complex field of water science — hydrology — a tortured claim that was instantly mocked by Claire Castro, Malacañang’s fierce spokesman, who herself may not have any grounding on water science. You think of Castro in these terms: as loyal to President Marcos as Steven Cheung is to United States President Donald Trump. Their principals never err.

After the vice president ventured into a rigid field of specialization that was definitely beyond her intellectual reach, her younger brother, Davao City’s Acting Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte, did the Act 11 — something that was also beyond the bounds of normal political behavior — challenging Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Nicolas Torre III to a boxing match.

If Baste’s intent was to distract Torre from what he was supposed to do, which was to prepare PNP field men for security work at the SONA, it did not work. Torre said yes to the challenge, set a date for it and even injected a sense of nobility into the younger Duterte’s grotesque behavior. Let us do a charity boxing match, with the proceeds going to those affected by the recent storms, Torre proposed.

Baste, for one reason or another, made a demand before accepting the challenge: a drug test for President Marcos, which was off-tangent to his original challenge and a sign of him clearly chickening out. Baste probably saw videos of Torre’s multiple push-ups and preparation for the match.

Was it broadcaster Waldy Carbonell who said the Dutertes do not really like fair fights? Even with the Dutertes’ showboating deflated by the President’s subalterns, multiple woes on several fronts will still be the gloomy backdrop of the SONA speech tomorrow. Days of incessant rains induced by Severe Tropical Storm Crising and Typhoon Emong — a months’ worth, weather experts say — overwhelmed the three regions that contribute 60 to 70 percent of the Philippines’ yearly economic output. Many parts of Metro Manila, Southern Luzon and Central Luzon were forced to declare a state of calamity due to the flooding the rains caused.

Television news vividly captured the anguish of people in the flooded areas: the dead bodies, the crowded evacuation centers, the long lines for relief goods, the low-lying residential areas that were turned into “Waterworld” overnight, and the creaky dams.

The other casualties, far from the media loop, were unreported. Near the field where I planted Napier grass for animal feed, the “sabog-tanim” of my neighboring rice farmer was inundated, the days-old rice sprouts swept into many directions. The “labanderas,” the ice cream vendors, the hollow-block makers and all the marginal workers who need the sun to ply their trade were in a state of both grief and paralysis.

All those who farmed know this: after a week or two of continuous rains, cash crops like “ampalaya” (bitter gourd) will wither and die after being exposed to only a week of harsh sunshine. My farmer-neighbor with the goner sabog-tanim also planted plots of bitter gourd and string beans. I do not know where he would get his next sustenance post-Crising and Emong. And how many small farmers across Central Luzon are in the same prostrate state? President Marcos will deliver his SONA amid a discouraging international context: the greatest trade shock in recent history that was the result of Trump’s unilateral imposition of punitive tariffs on trading partners, big and small. The President recently met with Trump to negotiate for a lower tariff. Trump responded with a 1-percent reduction of his earlier 20-percent tariff on Philippine goods shipped to the US — a clear “consuelo de bobo” — in exchange for zero tariffs on US goods shipped to our country.

The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and almost all multilateral institutions have predicted slower global economic growth this year, next year and in 2027 after that without directly blaming the real culprit: the punitive tariffs that have disrupted a stable global trading order since World War II. The Philippines, the multilaterals said, will also fail to meet its growth target.

China and the European Union, with their sizable economies, can probably work their way around the tariffs and survive even without US trade. The Philippines and other smaller economies may just have to wait for Trump’s exit from office, which is more than three years away. Meanwhile, they have to live with the tariff-induced lumps and bumps.

I do not know how the people in Malacañang can spin a hopeful and forward-looking SONA with the domestic and international backdrop both gloomy and discouraging. Maybe they can borrow from the Duterte playbook, which is this: don’t let the facts get into the way of a triumphant SONA.