𝗦𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗢𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝘆 𝗔𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗻 𝗙𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠. 𝗖𝗮𝗯𝗮𝗹𝘂
FORMER President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte graced the invitation of the senate to be a resource speaker in the senate’s investigation of the Duterte Drug War.
Duterte, in his “uncontrolled utterances” has told senators that under his leadership that he kept a “death squad” of criminals out to kill other criminals while serving as a mayor of Davao city.
The 79-year-old (although he claims that he is only 73 years old), said he offered “no apologies, no excuses” for his presidency, during which as many as 30,000 people were killed in his war on drugs.
Digong proudly said that his mandate as president was to protect the country and the Filipino people and also said that no one should question his policies saying that all the killings were done for his love of the Philippines.
The PNP put the death toll on his war on drugs at more than 6,000 but this is highly contested by the Commission on Human rights which estimate that between 12,000 and 30,000 people were killed between July 2016 and March 2022. The sad thing is that most victims were poor young men who were shot dead in streets, in their homes and even inside of jail cells.
Digong, as we all know is facing an investigation by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity while he was mayor and during his presidency.
In the senate, Digong was full of bravado…he was too boastful as if he has the monopoly of love for the country and monopoly of hatred against criminals most especiall those engaged in illegal drugs.
He even said that, to quote the bad mouthed former president, “I can make the confession now if you want, I had a death squad of seven, but they were not policemen, they were also gangsters. I’ll ask a gangster to kill somebody. If you will not kill that person, I will kill you now.”
When asked by senators for further details of the death squad, he deliriously said he would give more information at the next hearing.
According to him, he ordered officers to encourage criminals to fight back and resist arrest, so that police could then justify killing them. Prior to and during his presidency, Digong repeatedly and openly threatened drug dealers with death. He even urged people to kill drug addicts and dealers. In 2016, he claimed he had personally killed suspects while still mayor of Davao city.
Well, with all that Digong revealed during the first senate hearing on his bloody war on drugs, one can easily conclude that indeed, this former president must be punished because of the crimes he committed during his term as mayor and as president.
With his actuations and admittance, we can easily compare him to Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Bosnia’s Slobodan Milošević, Germany’s Adolf Hitler, Libya’s Muamar Gadaffi, to name just a few dictators.
Digong must be punished. His kind must not continue to exist in a civilized world.
