The daily news in Manila is now dominated by what new word bombs have been dropped or precipitate actions have been taken by President Duterte (sometimes called "DU30" or "Rody" in the press). All media and other predictions that candidate Duterte would "shape up" when he donned the Presidential mantle have proven to be woefully wrong. The leopard does not change its spots. Here are a few recent events that illustrate the strange path that he has been traveling since I arrived here almost three weeks ago.
On October 29, President Duterte told a press conference that he had heard "the voice of God" on the plane home from an official visit to Japan. He was told to stop cursing or God would "bring down the plane". DU30 swore (in the religious sense) that he would stop cursing. As one wag wrote: "If you talk to God, it is called prayer. If God talks to you, it is called schizophrenia." When he began to curse again after three or four days, DU30 said it was just a joke and the press corps were stupid for believing him. Obviously.
On November 3, DU30 threatened to suspend the writ of habeas corpus "if lawlessness continued". Officials who had been given absolutely no advance warning of such a possibility immediately began to walk back his comment. The Justice Secretary dismissed Duterte's threat as "hyperbole". "That is the nature of the President," he clarified. "He is fond of hyperbole but he doesn't really intend to do those (threats)". The Presidential Communications Secretary was equally reassuring: "Just an idea that was floated," he explained.
But nobody was reassured because it is well known that Duterte has a far darker side. The prime example is his threat to "kill the drug lords and rid the country of drug pushers". Extra judicial killings (called "EJK" here) continue apace. The number of 4,000 is often quoted.
While Duterte's anti-drug campaign still has strong public support among the general population, there is growing apprehension in many quarters as things get darker. A commentary by journalist Gideon Lacson sums it up well:
"Today, as the death toll continues to rise--and as the killings remain unsolved and uninvestigated--people are becoming inured to them, numb to the ramifications of condoning, or even just tolerating, the murder of our countrymen."
The latest EJK scandal illustrates what can happen when the police are given unlimited license. On November 5, Mayor Rolando Espinosa of Albuera, Leyte, was "killed in a shootout in his detention cell". Espinosa had been named by DU30, along with his son, Kerwin, as major suspects in the drug trade in the Visayas region. Espinosa surrendered to the police last August (under the unwritten "surrender or be killed" policy) but his son fled to Abu Dhabi, where he was arrested and is now embroiled in an extradition process.
At first, Espinosa was held at a "secure" detention facility but was suddenly moved to a facility that was not at all secure. He appealed the move and said that "he feared for his life." At 4AM on November 5, officers from the Criminal Investigation and Detention Group (CIDG) of the Eastern Visayas forced their way into the prison, detained the prison guards, and entered Espinosa's cell to "serve a search warrant,"allegedly for hidden arms. The officers testified before the Senate that Espinosa fired at them and that they returned fire in defense. Espinosa and a colleague in a nearby cell died from gunshot wounds.
There were immediate cries that this was a "rubout," and that Espinosa had no gun. Why did the police go to the trouble of obtaining a search warrant for a person who was already in custody? Why had the police called for SOCO (Scene of the Crime Operatives) some two hours before going to the prison? As one Senator asked: "Were you expecting to find a dead body?" And why, very conveniently, were the prison's CCTV discs missing?
The killing is now under Senate investigation. The Supreme Court has ordered the judge who granted the search warrant to explain (in five days) why such a warrant was needed and why it was granted.
DU30 steadfastly supports the CIDG version of events and rejects the Senate's line of inquiry. The story will continue but, like many stories here, it will fade after a while, and the media will move on to the next scandal. However, Duterte's defense of the police in a case that defies logic will be remembered.
As will the next strange event. On November 8 at about 4PM, the Supreme Court of the Philippines (SC), in a 9-5 decision (with one justice abstaining), announced that it had lifted the temporary stay on President Duterte's executive order permitting Ferdinand Marcos' remains to be buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani (Cemetery of Heroes). The SC, in an as yet unpublished decision, had decided that there was no law forbidding the burial of Marcos and that President Duterte's burial order was upheld.
If you remember, the corpse of Ferdinand Marcos was kept in a freezer in Hawaii for many years when the Marcos family were in exile. Under a controversial agreement with President Fidel Ramos, the Marcos family was permitted to bring back the body on the strict understanding that it would be buried in his home province, Illocos Norte. Many years later, and with a lot of agitation by the Marcos family, President Duterte determined that it was "time to move on" and that Marcos could be buried in the national cemetery reserved for heroes of the nation.
There were demonstrations against DU30's order all over the country. The sense of outrage was palpable. Some of the families of the more than 7, 000 victims of the Marcos era who were tortured, raped,"disappeared" or just plain murdered took their case to the Supreme Court to make sure that history could not be turned on its head. The Supreme Court, prodded by President Duterte, just turned history on its head.
Duterte had the nerve to say that this was the way a "democracy" works. NO, it was the corrupt Marcos family with its stolen billions and one President who had mysterious links to the Marcos family all those years ago (and who wanted Marcos' son to be his Vice President), who gave us their own warped idea of "democracy" on this occasion.
Burying Hitler with full military honors in Berlin might be the only analogy that could possibly sum up this hideous decision. The Supreme Court of the Philippines as an institution just destroyed itself in my eyes. We have to wait for the text of the majority decision but the "summary" already released only contains petty legal technicalities and vacuous sentiments like the issue of the burial "unnecessarily divide(s) the people and slow(s) the path to the future".
On the contrary, the Supreme Court's majority decision will create a great and lasting divide between those who refuse to believe that a tyrant can be recuperated and the Marcos supporters who, along with Imelda and her family, live in a parallel universe. But the images of People Power and the tanks on EDSA surrounded by millions of peaceful citizens will never be forgotten around the world.
A ray of light. The courageous Chief Justice, Maria Lourdes Sereno, wrote a strong dissenting opinion which has been published. She and the other justices who wrote dissenting opinions will ultimately be seen as the Heroine and the Heroes by history, not the waxed and mummified body that will now desecrate sacred ground.
We will have to see where Duterte leads the Philippines in the future. Nobody can predict whether he will be a success or a colossal failure. But we can surmise that it is going to be a very strange journey for the people and much battered institutions of this country.
On October 29, President Duterte told a press conference that he had heard "the voice of God" on the plane home from an official visit to Japan. He was told to stop cursing or God would "bring down the plane". DU30 swore (in the religious sense) that he would stop cursing. As one wag wrote: "If you talk to God, it is called prayer. If God talks to you, it is called schizophrenia." When he began to curse again after three or four days, DU30 said it was just a joke and the press corps were stupid for believing him. Obviously.
On November 3, DU30 threatened to suspend the writ of habeas corpus "if lawlessness continued". Officials who had been given absolutely no advance warning of such a possibility immediately began to walk back his comment. The Justice Secretary dismissed Duterte's threat as "hyperbole". "That is the nature of the President," he clarified. "He is fond of hyperbole but he doesn't really intend to do those (threats)". The Presidential Communications Secretary was equally reassuring: "Just an idea that was floated," he explained.
But nobody was reassured because it is well known that Duterte has a far darker side. The prime example is his threat to "kill the drug lords and rid the country of drug pushers". Extra judicial killings (called "EJK" here) continue apace. The number of 4,000 is often quoted.
While Duterte's anti-drug campaign still has strong public support among the general population, there is growing apprehension in many quarters as things get darker. A commentary by journalist Gideon Lacson sums it up well:
"Today, as the death toll continues to rise--and as the killings remain unsolved and uninvestigated--people are becoming inured to them, numb to the ramifications of condoning, or even just tolerating, the murder of our countrymen."
The latest EJK scandal illustrates what can happen when the police are given unlimited license. On November 5, Mayor Rolando Espinosa of Albuera, Leyte, was "killed in a shootout in his detention cell". Espinosa had been named by DU30, along with his son, Kerwin, as major suspects in the drug trade in the Visayas region. Espinosa surrendered to the police last August (under the unwritten "surrender or be killed" policy) but his son fled to Abu Dhabi, where he was arrested and is now embroiled in an extradition process.
At first, Espinosa was held at a "secure" detention facility but was suddenly moved to a facility that was not at all secure. He appealed the move and said that "he feared for his life." At 4AM on November 5, officers from the Criminal Investigation and Detention Group (CIDG) of the Eastern Visayas forced their way into the prison, detained the prison guards, and entered Espinosa's cell to "serve a search warrant,"allegedly for hidden arms. The officers testified before the Senate that Espinosa fired at them and that they returned fire in defense. Espinosa and a colleague in a nearby cell died from gunshot wounds.
There were immediate cries that this was a "rubout," and that Espinosa had no gun. Why did the police go to the trouble of obtaining a search warrant for a person who was already in custody? Why had the police called for SOCO (Scene of the Crime Operatives) some two hours before going to the prison? As one Senator asked: "Were you expecting to find a dead body?" And why, very conveniently, were the prison's CCTV discs missing?
The killing is now under Senate investigation. The Supreme Court has ordered the judge who granted the search warrant to explain (in five days) why such a warrant was needed and why it was granted.
DU30 steadfastly supports the CIDG version of events and rejects the Senate's line of inquiry. The story will continue but, like many stories here, it will fade after a while, and the media will move on to the next scandal. However, Duterte's defense of the police in a case that defies logic will be remembered.
As will the next strange event. On November 8 at about 4PM, the Supreme Court of the Philippines (SC), in a 9-5 decision (with one justice abstaining), announced that it had lifted the temporary stay on President Duterte's executive order permitting Ferdinand Marcos' remains to be buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani (Cemetery of Heroes). The SC, in an as yet unpublished decision, had decided that there was no law forbidding the burial of Marcos and that President Duterte's burial order was upheld.
If you remember, the corpse of Ferdinand Marcos was kept in a freezer in Hawaii for many years when the Marcos family were in exile. Under a controversial agreement with President Fidel Ramos, the Marcos family was permitted to bring back the body on the strict understanding that it would be buried in his home province, Illocos Norte. Many years later, and with a lot of agitation by the Marcos family, President Duterte determined that it was "time to move on" and that Marcos could be buried in the national cemetery reserved for heroes of the nation.
There were demonstrations against DU30's order all over the country. The sense of outrage was palpable. Some of the families of the more than 7, 000 victims of the Marcos era who were tortured, raped,"disappeared" or just plain murdered took their case to the Supreme Court to make sure that history could not be turned on its head. The Supreme Court, prodded by President Duterte, just turned history on its head.
Duterte had the nerve to say that this was the way a "democracy" works. NO, it was the corrupt Marcos family with its stolen billions and one President who had mysterious links to the Marcos family all those years ago (and who wanted Marcos' son to be his Vice President), who gave us their own warped idea of "democracy" on this occasion.
Burying Hitler with full military honors in Berlin might be the only analogy that could possibly sum up this hideous decision. The Supreme Court of the Philippines as an institution just destroyed itself in my eyes. We have to wait for the text of the majority decision but the "summary" already released only contains petty legal technicalities and vacuous sentiments like the issue of the burial "unnecessarily divide(s) the people and slow(s) the path to the future".
On the contrary, the Supreme Court's majority decision will create a great and lasting divide between those who refuse to believe that a tyrant can be recuperated and the Marcos supporters who, along with Imelda and her family, live in a parallel universe. But the images of People Power and the tanks on EDSA surrounded by millions of peaceful citizens will never be forgotten around the world.
A ray of light. The courageous Chief Justice, Maria Lourdes Sereno, wrote a strong dissenting opinion which has been published. She and the other justices who wrote dissenting opinions will ultimately be seen as the Heroine and the Heroes by history, not the waxed and mummified body that will now desecrate sacred ground.
We will have to see where Duterte leads the Philippines in the future. Nobody can predict whether he will be a success or a colossal failure. But we can surmise that it is going to be a very strange journey for the people and much battered institutions of this country.
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