Category: rodrigo duterte

April 22 synchronicities

Sitting through most of the Justice Committee hearing wasn’t a waste of time, mabuti na lang. To my mind, probable cause was established vis a vis unexplained wealth in the impeachment case of VP Sara. “Smoking gun,” sabi ni Rep Chel Diokno. Salamat kay Sonny Trillanes. And kudos to committee chair Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro sa maingat ngunit matalim na pagtitimon. Impressive, Ma’am!

Meanwhile in The Hague, the ICC denied again the jurisdiction appeal of Duterte‘s counsel. The very next day, April 23, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber finally confirmed all charges against Duterte and committed him to trial before a Trial Chamber. Ka-abang-abang. At nakakapagpaisip. How did Digong receive kaya the news. Surely he didn’t see his life winding down on this very sad note. I suppose he thought he could get away with the killings and stealings, no one would ever dare take him to court. But he trusted Imee, made Marcos 1.0 a hero, then made Marcos 2.0 the president. What if he hadn’t.

Umeksena rin ang Supremes. Without necessarily giving due course to the petition, the Court ordered BBM and his executive secretary Ralph Recto to respond in 10 days to former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez‘s plea that the president be made to submit to health exams, including a hair follicle test. Hindi ko gets. Ang naaalala ko ay nuong panahon ng boss ni Alvarez when we’d see then President Rodrigo Duterte stumbling around, talking weird, looking half-asleep, barely paying attention, like he was high or stoned on Fentanyl or other, remember? He’d disappear sporadically, too, sometimes for a week or two, and we wondered who was running the country, and we’d ask for his medical records, and always, Duterte refused. A petition to the Supreme Court by Atty. Dino de Leon in April 2020 was simply junked by the Supremes a month later, hindi na inabala si Digong with an order to respond within 10 days. Double standard much, Your Honors?  Read “Panelo: No need for medical bulletin on President” 

Samantala sa social media, nambulaga in video si former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, whom we haven’t heard from since he resigned as speaker in the wake of the flood-control corruption scandal. Obviously na-upset dahil hindi siya pinayagan ng Ombudsman na magpuntang Singapore for a medical procedure — baka daw kasi hindi na siya bumalik a la Zaldy Co. “Fuming mad” si Romualdez, sabi ni Tony Lopez ng BizAsia. Angry enough to fight back and name Co and Chiz Escudero as the real masterminds daw, in cooperation with the executive branch. Hmm. Who next? Chiz maybe? I hear he’s threatening to name names too. Laglagan na ba, ang saya.

But the best April 22 event was Naga Mayor Leni Robredo reiterating that she is not running for president in 2028. Hindi nga naman tayo nakikinig. Tigilan na natin siya. She’s done her part. She didn’t want to run either in 2022 pero na-pressure siya into saying yes dahil VP siya noon. Pero ngayon, sa Naga na ang eksena niya, and she’s doing good there, let’s be happy for Naga!  So who might she endorse? Clearly she would be choosing among these three: Risa Hontiveros, Kiko Pangilinan, and Bam Aquino. Here’s hoping she eventually zooms in on Risa as the best choice for nation.

KATRINA S.S. [More than Bam or Kiko] Hontiveros has been at the forefront of urgent and critical investigations in the Senate, from the illegal POGO hubs to the West Philippine Sea; has been fighting with all of us for the divorce and SOGIE bills; has been an important voice on national issues since 2016, and even more so since 2022.

Hontiveros is, in fact, a level-up to Leni. The kind that will not dial back on her pro-divorce stance (as Leni did) when faced with the Catholic Church. The kind that will not suddenly compromise on her stance for equal rights and protection for LGBTQIA+ in the face of conservative criticism. The kind that can and will and has proven able to speak about democratic rights and systemic change in a language that we all understand, and in ways that are doable and imaginable and possible. https://katrinasantiago.com/

Duterte 2017

Biglang may nagbabasa ng 2017 post na ito. While the ICC confirmation of charges hearings reminded painfully of Duterte’s horrible drug war, this piece zeroes in on a specific point in time, soon after the killing of Kian, when it was all just too heartbreaking, infuriating, and scary, and all we could do was despair for nation. Good to be reminded. #BeforeCovid

Duterte’s drug war & the “hearsay” divide

August 20, 2017

Recently President Duterte admitted na nagkamali siya when he promised to rid the country of shabu in six months, imposible daw pala, even in the next five years, it just cannot be done, he says, by a single president over just one term.

I thought it might mean a CHANGE in strategy, from killing killing killing alleged addicts and pushers without due process to finally policing customs and coastlines and preventing the smuggling of shabu and it’s component chemicals into the country. But no.

He [said] having a long coastline to watch over and thousands of islands to guard make it difficult to prevent the entry of illegal drugs.

“We do not have the equipment, kulang man (It’s not enough). And you know the coastline,” he added.

He made us a new promise instead:

“I assure you, by the time I make my—kung buhay pa ako (if I am still alive)—five years from now, drugs will be at its lowest,” he said.

Too soon Bato’s police were back on the streets big time, in multiple synchronous operations across Bulacan, and later in Manila. Killing alleged addicts and dealers without due process, puro hearsay, mostly info solicited from barangay peeps and neighbors, atbp., as if we didn’t know how easy it is to point fingers, especially if under duress of authorities with quotas to meet. Hearsay, sabi-sabi, is good enough in this environment, and once you’re on that list, it is said, you’re on the list forever, never mind if you’ve been rehabbed or you were clean to begin with at napagdiskitahan lang, which may have been the case with Kian.

In an unusual move, allies of President Rodrigo Duterte in the Senate on Friday condemned the killing of a 17-year-old senior high school student in Caloocan City, with some pushing for a probe into the boy’s death and those of scores of suspects in the past bloody week described as the deadliest since the start of the government’s drug war in July last year.

This is one of the rare instances during which senators who belong to the majority caucus in the Senate have publicly spoken against the killings related to Duterte’s brutal and unrelenting war on drugs.

The policemen who shot to death Kian Loyd Delos Santos on Wednesday night were not only abusive but also “killers and criminals,” according to Sen. Francis Escudero.  “The CCTV footage and eyewitness account clearly show that the boy was killed.”

Five more years? We cannot have five more years of this. It is too painful for the body politic, Mr. President, sir. And it is dangerous: what monsters are we turning our police forces into?  And we the people, do we really want to become desensitized to inhumane treatment by government? Read Yen Makabenta’s It’s not fun waking up in a ‘narco-state.

When Duterte absolves the police of wrongdoing in the drug war, no matter what the abuses, I believe he is crossing a red line in constitutional government. It is dangerous to himself and to his presidency.

It is not explained away by protesting against due process of law and human rights.

The presidential rhetoric is both inflationary and demoralizing.

Believe it or not, the police profession is supposed to exercise intellectual leadership in the criminal justice system. The police must take the lead in the fight against crime and violence.

Not all shabu addicts are bad people who get violent and criminal under the influence and who deserve to be eliminated just like that. And even addicts who do get violent and criminal do not deserve to be killed without due process and rehab options. We are better than this.

But yeah, our world would be a better place without shabu, and it’s weird that the president isn’t trying harder to turn off the supply. The real job is to stop both the manufacture here and the smuggling-in of shabu and its components. The customs shabu fiasco was the perfect opportunity for the president to demonstrate that all his tough talk vs. drugs and corruption is not just talk and empty threats. Instead he chose to prop up and make excuses for Faeldon.

“But Faeldon, I will stand by him. He’s really honest. Kaya lang nalusutan siya because lahat diyan sa Customs, corrupt. My God,” Duterte said on Wednesday in his speech in Malacañang during the celebration of the 19th anniversary of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption.

“I hope I would not offend any particular person but almost all [are corrupt]. Sila ‘yong magagandang bahay…magaganda ang kotse [They are those who have beautiful houses and beautiful cars] ,” he added.

He hopes he would not offend anyone in particular? I am aghast. Seriously? Ayaw niyang maka-offend ng mga corrupt? Hindi siya nagagalit nang  bongga  sa mga corrupt na ito na tone-tonelada kung magpasok o magpapasok ng shabu?

It’s bad enough that hearsay is acceptable only in cases against the poor and powerless, not in cases against the rich and powerful. What Is worse, when they do have enough evidence and/or search warrants on the rich and powerful, the suspects end up dead. As in, silenced forever.

In the Bureau of Customs naman, a different kind of silencing is going on. In Have we truly become a full-blown narco state? Kit Tatad wonders what Faeldon knows.

…something DU30 may not blithely ignore. Analysts close to this issue, however, believe Faeldon may be in possession of certain sensitive information, which makes it hard for DU30 to get rid of him, unless he volunteers to step down. …Amid the apparent efforts of some quarters to link DU30’s son Paolo, the vice mayor of Davao City, to the dangerous drugs shipment from Xiamen, Faeldon has not said one word clearing him of any suspicion. If Faeldon knows Paolo is not at all involved in any monkey business at the pier, shouldn’t he have come to his defense after the customs broker Mark Taguba mentioned his name, quoting wild rumors, in a congressional hearing? He did not.

…The problem is, a photo has surfaced in the social media showing Paolo in a friendly pose with Kenneth Dong, the alleged middleman in the illegal P6.4 billion drug shipment. And some people are giving undue importance to it. No one is saying the young man has any fascination for any narco king—whether it be Burma’s late opium king Khun Sa, or Colombia’s Pablo Escobar, or Mexico’s Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. But by linking him to Kenneth Dong and the rest of his narco chain, his enemies clearly want to show his guilt by association.

The president himself has minced no words about how much worse the corruption is than he thought, shabu-related corruption in particular.

He [said] that the war on drugs had exposed so many people involved in the business of illegal drugs, it was like pressing “worms out of a can.”

“I didn’t have an idea that there are hundreds of thousands of people already in the drug business. What makes it worse is they are cooperated now by people in government, especially those in elected positions. So, it will be government versus government,” he added.

There’s the rub. Government vs. Government. Big shots vs. big shots. Tila nga napakaraming very-important-people and their networks ang tatamaan. Napakaraming mawawalan ng trabaho (kawawa naman). At magkakaalaman, mabubuking (sa wakas), kung sinosino nga ba sa mga honourable na iyan ang sinasandalan at dinadatungan ng mga drug lord. Sinosino ba sa mga honourable na iyan na nagmamalinis ang mga kalaban pala, mga kaaway pala, ng taong-bayan. Clear lines would finally be drawn, and that would be oh so good for nation.

I’d have thought that a showdown was right up Digong’s alley. I thought he might be the anti-hero hero who would end narco rule and institute systemic changes, set things right, no matter what. Alas, our astig prez seems to be intimidated out of his wits. Too much baggage?

“I have to stop drugs, really stop. And it will stop,” he said in a speech during a tourism event in Davao City Friday night.  “I will kill you if you destroy my country and you start f****** with my children,” he added.

“My children”? Slip of the tongue? Or just another bad joke.

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.