Recently, I was surprised to get a private message from an American friend, who happens to be a journalist, in my Facebook account.
“Did Davao really put up with this murdering thug for 20 years? Did your newspaper cover it? How long will the nation put up with the bloodbath on the streets he has unleashed,” he inquired.
His questions stemmed from an article entitled, “Duterte keeps admitting to killing people. His supporters keep shrugging it off,” which appeared in The Washington Post.
“It should have been a shocking admission,” author Emily Rauhala wrote. “On Monday, Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, bragged about killing people. He said that when he was a city mayor, he used to hunt suspects on his motorcycle, shooting people on the spot. The goal, he said, was to encourage police officers to do to the same.”
Duterte was quoted as saying: “In Davao, I used to do it personally. Just to show to the (police) that if I can it, why can’t you? I (would) go around in Davao with a motorcycle… and I would just patrol the streets and looking for trouble also. I was really looking for an encounter to kill.”
Instead of answering him my lengthy thought, I sent him an editorial which came out in Business Mirror:
“Admittedly, the President, in his war on drugs, is trying to apply nationally a formula his supporters find to have worked in Davao City, hailed as one of the most peaceful Philippine cities. As city mayor there for more than two decades, Duterte’s iron-fish approach restored security amid vigilante killings. His constituents swear they feel safe walking alone in their city even at night.
“In Metro Manila, people are starting to feel the same sense of security a couple of months after the President launched his war on drugs. Now they can home late at night with no fear of being mugged by drug users. That’s why most everyone supports Duterte’s campaign against illegal drugs.”
My journalist friend wrote back after reading the complete editorial. “So, according to this column, your only two options in the Philippines are to become a criminal narco-state or to be run by a thug who either encourages or actually enables death squads to act as judge, jury and executioner on the street and kill not only drug dealers but users and anybody else even suspected?” he wondered. “That’s pretty sad…”
I answered back: “It’s just like in the United States. You have also only two choices during the election.”
His reply: “Yes, those are bad choices. I’m currently in despair regarding Trump, an incompetent moron and scoundrel, actually becoming a president. But last time I checked, he’s not a murderer sanctioning mass murder on the streets. I hope for the sake of Filipinos that the country can do something about it, because he will destroy your economy, your society and whatever is left of your democracy. Trump would probably do the same to us if he could get away with it; I can only hope our institution are strong enough to resist him.”
Without thinking much, I answered: “But most people, except for the chosen few and oligarchs, like Duterte because they are safer now. They know that there are collateral damages but to keep everyone safer, they will want Duterte to be the president of our country.
I added: “But there are those who oppose with his war on drugs.” Then I sent a scanned copy of the cover page of EDGE Davao with the headline: “END KILLINGS.”
The other end wrote: “I might do the same if I were in their position. I know it’s easy for me to talk from the safety of a suburb in America. What they don’t realize is that one day the ‘collateral damage’ will be one of their family members.”
My answer: “I know. And we pray it won’t happen. But then again, a lot of changes happened in just a matter of 100 days when Duterte become the president – changes that never happened during the past administrations.”
He wrote back: “Is it worth it is my question. If innocent people are being shot in the street every day along with the guilty, and neither get a fair trial, is it worth it?”
Instead of answering him back, I sent a news report which came out in Philippine Daily Inquirer. The reactions of two senators about the statement of Duterte admitting about “personally” ending the lives of drug suspects.
“To some people, it could be wrong. To some people, there would be liability. But if indeed there are liabilities, then file a case against him,” Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III was quoted as saying. “We don’t know how it (killing) happened, if it really happened, or if it is what is called a hyperbole.”
Hyperbole, which is derived from a Greek word meaning “over-casting,” is a figure of speech. It involves an exaggeration of ideas for the sake of emphasis. It is a device that we employ in our day-to-day speech.
For his part, Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto was shocked to hear the statement of the President. “I was surprised to read that in the papers today. I don’t know in what context he said it, I didn’t watch it, I just read it in the papers today, but I was very much surprised because the other day, he said he had not done it, or something to that effect,” Recto was quoted as saying.
I was not sure if he read the news report. But I got no feedback from him anymore.
End of the story.
