Category: rodrigo duterte

Kidnap? . . . Karma!

Tuesday, the 11th, that saw Digong arrested upon ICC and Interpol orders when he returned from Hong Kong, and forthwith detained in Villamor Air Base (not Crame, as a distraught vlogger thought), and by the end of the day flown off on a jet plane, one-way, to Dubai and finally the Hague, was breathtaking, as in startling, thrilling, stunning, in its seamless execution.

At every point, I expected things to go sideways — no jurisdiction? due process not observed? fake arrest warrant? health concerns? TRO? — just because alam naman natin ang batas dito sa Pinas, kanya-kanyang interpretation depending on where one stands in the political spectrum. That the Palace managed to stay out of the unfolding fray, media-wise, was remarkable, even impressive. Ika nga ni Manolo Quezon sa “The last hurrah”:

And so, the Great Eagle Father came home, possibly for the last time. He was arrested with a degree of dignity, not to mention surgical precision and efficiency, I’d previously thought impossible to achieve in our shambolic republic. https://opinion.inquirer.net/181551/the-last-hurrah-2

As it turned out, the rumors that swirled around over the weekend, na he was in Hong Kong kunwari to campaign for the votes of Hong Kong OFWs and KOJCs, actually to ask China for asylum because nabulungan sila about an ICC arrest order… it would seem that the rumors were based on good intel.

Nuong umuwi siya Tuesday morning into the arms of police who arrested him in the plane pa lang, the big question was: Bakit umuwi? Could it be that China said no, and he had nowhere else to go? It was late in the afternoon of Tuesday, nasa Villamor pa siya, when this was posted by the Philippines Defense Forces Forum:

The intel suggests that Xi Jinping smoked Duterte, ignored his requests for political asylum, and had him told to leave Hong Kong upon learning that Interpol had already received an arrest warrant from the ICC. While China is not a member of the ICC, it is a member of Interpol and would likely avoid an embarrassing backlash from other member states by protecting Duterte.
https://www.facebook.com/philippinesdefense/posts/

Digong and Sara claim Digong was kidnapped. But a kidnap is done stealthily — this arrest was done openly, backed by a warrant of arrest. Like Digong used to say, there’s a time for everything, and here it is, a time to pay, for heinous crimes against humanity. A matter of karma. We reap what we sow.

Ika nga ni Atty Claire Castro re the DDS claim na “nakabuti naman ang drug war sa karamihan ng ating mga kababayan”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc-DXedRNJk

Dapat natin i-determine, anong klaseng kabutihan? … Itanong natin, war on drugs, kasama ang tokhang? kasama ang pagpatay [na] walang due process? kasama yung sasabihan ng pulis…o sige, sabihin mo sa kanya lumaban, para matapos na at mabawasan na ang problema sa Pilipinas? Hindi siya dapat polisiya ng gobyerno in the first place. It’s against the law! Killing is against the law! Wala nga tayong death penalty sa Pilipinas. Uunahan mo pa na patayin. Ang masama, wala pang hearing… So hindi natin matatanggap na yung war on drugs na pinairal ni dating Pangulong Duterte ay tamà. Kung may naitulong sa iba, paano naman yung namatayan. Kung merong nabiktima itong drug users, then the victims can file cases against these drug users. Pero hindi natin matatanggap na polisiya siya na dapat sundin ng isang gobyerno.

Good to be reminded, lalo na’t emotions are running high, ranging from bittersweet joy (justice!) to grief (gone!) and everything in between, which can get really cheesy, like a “public intellectual” saying that it didn’t have to come to this, meaning what? That Duterte should have behaved better maybe? Hindi dapat dumulog sa ICC? Hindi dapat inilipad si Duterte sa Hague? Hayaan na lang na  malusutan ang katakut-takot na indiscriminate extra-judicial killings by his death squads?

Isip isip. There’s right and there’s wrong. Karma rules.

*

What Duterte’s warrant of arrest reveals by Joel Ruiz Butuyan

The law finally caught up with Duterte and his death squads by Karishma Vaswani

Duterte’s arrest: A reckoning for justice by Antonio Contreras

Cue the wailing and gnashing of teeth by Ben Kritz

Impeach bulaga, MacArthur Park

Sinadya kaya ng Lower House reps na literally last-minute nila isinampa ang Articles of Impeachment sa Senado, knowing very well that it was too late, the Senate had adjourned, but, well, the media mileage is worth it? Besides there seems to be much glee in putting Senate Prez Chiz on the spot — just about every other lawyer and pundit and rep is weighing in now on the meaning of “shall forthwith proceed” and insisting that the Senate must get moving, now na! Bumigay kaya si Chiz, o manindigan? Ano ba talaga ang rules?

Samantala, cool na cool si VP Sara, matagal na daw nilang pinaghahandaan ito, okey lang siya, “mas masakit pa maiwan ng boyfriend o girlfriend kaysa ma-impeach ka ng House of Representatives.” Hmm. I’m sure not, as in, not true. Unless it’s a measure of how little she thinks of country, and ipinapa-sa-diyos na lang niya ang kapalaran ng ‘Pinas, as in, “God save the Philippines”? Really?

Upon messaging her father daw that “Everything will be all right”, former President Duterte sent her daw a video of him singing “MacArthur’s Park”, a sixties song, boomer times, about the end of a love affair. Na medyo appropriate nga naman if we look back on the BBM-Sara hook-up. When did it start going wrong? Was it doomed from the start?

The Duterte-Marcos alliance was already there when Duterte won the presidency in 2016 (BBM lost as VP to Leni). That he immediately allowed the burial of FEM in the Libingan ng mga Bayani told us all we needed to know, that it was a bayad-utang for the Marcos-loyalist vote. Maybe he needn’t have. Maybe he would have won anyway. And maybe if he hadn’t allowed the burial, and the dictator Marcos’s right to be buried as hero continues to be questioned, maybe we wouldn’t have a Marcos back in the palace? I can imagine Dutz singing this part with gusto, and regret.

Someone left the cake out in the rain 
I don’t think that I can take it
‘Cause it took so long to bake it 
And I’ll never have that recipe again
Oh nooooo

Teatro Digong

Obvious naman kung bakit umapir si Digong sa QuadComm hearing. Gusto niya maalaman, firsthand, what they have on him, and, also, to generate fresh social media content that would bolster his Quad-damaged image.

DDS vloggers now have a lot of new stuff to cut up for a series of quick videoclips | soundbites that depict the Digong in all his defiant glory, daring Congress and the DOJ to charge him in court for the EJKs during his admin’s drug war. He seems confident, even as he takes responsibility for the kill-pagnanlaban-policy, that no court would convict him for police criminality, correct me if I’m wrong.

He reminds that he’s a lawyer, a former fiscal and prosecutor, a police academy teacher even, and he knows the law and how it works.  Let’s not forget, too, that the Supreme Court’s chief justice and 12 (of 14) associate justices are Digong appointees. Surely that counts for something. https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/incumbent-justices/

All in all, it was a fascinating 14-hour show of machismo on both sides of the divide, entertaining even, with Digong giving as good as he got, contodo surprise appearance by VP Sara to check on him, kumain na ba, or something like that? — best supporting actress to his best actor.

I actually sat through most of it. I could never sit through his monologues of yore, nakakapagod just trying to get the rhythm of his multi-lingual-speak and only to be shocked dismayed depressed. The question-answer format was quite restful all around, lol, long-winded interpellations and manifestations also gave him, us, long-enough breaks to recharge.  After a while I was finding it hilarious the way he would give different, contradictory, answers to the same question. Asked about the ICC, he went from Sipain-ko-sila to I-would-welcome-them to Ayoko-sa-puti. Na puro kapani-paniwala, coming from him. And all quite spontaneous. Alin doon ang “istorya lang”? It’s like, live audiences turn him on, and as with good stand-up comedians, we can expect the unexpected.

Meanwhile, the Quad apparently is still a long way from achieving its ambitious goal of tying up EJKs with POGOs with Chinese syndicates with the illegal drug trade. Digong’s near-violent reaction to Sonny Trillanes’s charge of ill-gotten wealth — some P2.4 billion in deposits to Digong’s bank accounts from 2007 to 2015 allegedly from drug money — tells us that he’s not about to waive his right to keep secret the bank accounts he jointly holds with Honeylet and Sara.  He has even threatened to sue Trillanes for libel and accuses him of being a BBM minion.

And speaking of BBM, I just heard a couple of macho liberal kinda-konyo pinklawan vloggers freaking out that Martin Romualdez is still the Marcos camp’s preferred bet in 2028 in anticipation of a  Sandro run and win in 2034. These social media pundits think there’s no way Martin can beat Sara BUT they actually believe that Leni Robredo can !?!

What is this romance with Leni? Totoo bang may panalo? Hmm, only if, in a two-way race, with the full support of the Marcos-Romualdez camp. Fat chance that. In a three way race, Leni doesn’t have a chance just because hindi siya kilala ng masa. Wala siyang public presence, except to her naive middleclass loyalists. And she has yet to level up from motherhood statements, much like the macho liberal senatoriables, when they could be talking fundamental change, if only for starters.

To wrap up, it bears noting that I’m seeing replays of the Digong sa QuadComm on two TV channels. Frankly, I’m not sure which camp this helps more. But Congress seems to think it’s a good idea.

Dogging Digong

Trump’s wild comeback does not remind so much of the Marcos comeback in 2022 (via the son) as it does WARN of a Duterte comeback in 2028 (via the daughter). What else could the synchronicity of QuadComm hearings and Trump’s victory mean, or portend, if not some corresponding, or similar, outcome for the Duterte dynasty, that is, if they try hard enough (as Trump and the Republicans did). No wonder the DDS camp is overjoyed, may pag-asa talagang makabalik.

But not, it would seem, if the QuadComm can help it. Why else would they be dogging him, as in, hounding him by investigating the extrajudicial killings that the Duterte admin’s drug war wrought, updating nation on the latest facts and figures, and giving voice to the victims and families of victims, not least among them Leila de Lima, if not to remind us of those difficult days when human rights were violently violated left and right and yet martial-law vibes became acceptable daw because, wow, no more drugs, no more crazed addicts preying on women in dark streets, peace and quiet at last, even if of the dark kind.

It’s like the Quad is leaving no stone unturned to uncover as much credible information as possible, hopefully enough to compel the DOJ to file formal criminal charges against the former president and his cohorts. Due process and all that. Meanwhile, Quad chips away at the Duterte brand, rendering it exposed, if not diminished. I suppose the idea is to make it difficult, if not impossible, for DDS candidates to win in 2025’s midterms.

What about VP Sara and her super-confidential confidential funds ? I-i-impeach nga ba ng Konggreso? Makisama kaya ang Senado? I’ve been monitoring the discourse among social media macho pundits and because a couple of reps have said that there’s enough evidence to impeach, there’s a sense na the Lower House will, should, begin proceedings soon or else they’ll run out of time, campaign season na by Feb 11, sayang naman ang momentum, or something like that.

Others think it’s not going to happen yet, let her stew, kumbaga. Tila kasi wala palang Plan B ang Marcos camp nang di nakalusot o pumatok ang chacha-to-parliamentary with House-Speaker-as-Prime-Minister scheme.  The Marcoses of course need to be sure that the next president is one of them, if not by blood then by affinity and/or complicity. But Martin simply isn’t simpatiko enough to “win hearts and minds” even of the gullible kind.

A lot will depend on how the midterms turn out. But no-thanks-to-Trump there’s a palpable sense of dread — especially now that we are being reminded of the Digong years — regarding a Sara Duterte win in 2028, and for now we can only hope that the incumbent and his peeps have the smarts to thwart that.