Duterte used Senate hearing to heap more pain and insult on victims of extrajudicial killings

Rodrigo Duterte blamed everyone except himself for the Tokhang carnage during his presidency.

He proudly acknowledged that he is responsible for waging a brutal “war on drugs” that he claims was successful in addressing the grave problem on a national scale; the same success he achieved in Davao City as mayor. But he attributed the extrajudicial killings that took place to erring police, uncooperative local officials, infighting among criminal syndicates and even vigilante citizens with rich patrons.

Like a true demagogue, Duterte used the Senate hearing as a platform to repeat his campaign and later, presidential line, that the drug problem was the single biggest threat to the nation, that the only way to deal with it is with an iron fist, and that of course, he was the only one with the political will and the capability to wage that kind of war to end the problem.

May be an image of 7 people and text

But this harangue can only work with those in his cabal and the most deluded still among his dwindling following. For Duterte gave contradictory narratives, made slips-of-the-tongue admissions of culpability, lectured the senators about how to govern setting aside legal and moral principles and generally undermined the hearing with his evasive replies, resort to expletives and repetitive ramblings.

Despite Duterte’s attempt to evade accountability, his incriminating revelations need to be highlighted: That he has a “death squad” operating under his orders; that he encouraged the police to kill drug and other criminal suspects; and that he cannot account for the thousands who were killed after allegedly resisting arrest in police operations or “nanlaban”.

What Duterte himself exposed is that his fascist and tyrannical mindset in addressing a social problem like drug use translated into a state policy causing the extrajudicial killing of tens of thousands of alleged drug users and small-time pushers together with many innocent, law-abiding people, majority of whom were from urban poor communities. While he claims to be concerned about the social impact of drug addiction, his only solution was to allow the police and shadowy “death squads” to kill their targets with impunity.

Duterte’s Senate testimony is a reminder that truth and justice will be harder to pursue as long as Tokhang enforcers like Bato dela Rosa and Bong Go as well as Duterte loyalists like Robin Padilla and Jinggoy Estrada are allowed to derail the investigation with their self-serving testimonies, servile echoing of Duterte’s line and other inanities.

Listening to Duterte was like reliving the trauma when he hostaged the public with his midnight Cabinet briefings during the pandemic, and when he unleashed his Tokhang terror during his presidency. But we owe it — to the victims of his fake and failed drug war as well as the victims of his bloody war on dissent — to amplifying the call for accountability and justice. Let us expose the desperate maneuvers of the Duterte camp to sabotage the exposure of the truth using a pliant Senate platform.

For six years, Duterte used the presidency to bombard the public with his outmoded, repressive and fascist perspectives on the drug issue to distract us from his utter failure to deliver on his boast that he would solve crime and corruption during his term of office. Today, he was able to use the Senate hearing to inflict more pain and insult to those who suffered under his presidency.

The Senate subcommittee could and should have given more time to the testimonies of the victims of Duterte’s drug war.

We likewise condemn the Marcos government for its glaring inaction over the mounting evidence pointing to the direct role of Duterte in incentivizing the illegal and morally repehensible behavior of the police. At the very least, it should cooperate with the International Criminal Court in prosecuting Duterte.

We call on all Filipinos to stand with the families of the victims of extrajudicial killings and to push for justice and accountability until Duterte and his cabal are thrown behind bars.

#DuterteIkulong
#DutertePanagutin

Categories: Statements

0 Comments

Leave a Reply

Avatar placeholder

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *