Let’s call it what it is: desperation.

We are being made to believe by Duterte propagandists that the inclusion of provisions specific to Leila de Lima in the US Appropriations Act for 2020 is a sham. Yes, the same one that Donald Trump signed on December 20 2019. That same one that’s got us all talking about the Magnitsky Act. Someone calls it fake news. Another calls on media to show her where exactly this provision is. So many likes and shares after, and you know this is the kind of irresponsibility that this government has lived off, whether through these purported rogue propagandists or through official agencies like the PCOO and Mocha Uson.

Now in the past two years I’ve ignored these people completely—it’s just not worth it talking to people who have drank the kool-aid. It’s always entertaining though, mostly because it can hold a drop or two of truth. This time though the lapses are so huge, that one can only see it as either a deliberate effort to misinform the Duterte base, and/or get on the good side of Duterte by pointing out that his own people are being dumb. Except that they aren’t. 

The links the propagandists have chosen are NOT even the right ones. What we’re looking at is the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill, 2020 or S.2583, which is up on the official US Congress website. What these propagandists are looking at are different consolidated appropriations, and even the old un-signed versions of the same bill. GovTrack.us, which they use to prove their point, is actually a very useful resource (that we need in the Philippines!), but which they aren’t using well. If they were actually looking at the right thing, they would find that S.2583 is the one signed by Trump.

Now if you click on the link to S.2583, and you read the text, you will find NO provision on Leila de Lima, and no mention of the Magnitsky Act. But you also realize that when news broke in September of how Senators Durbin and Leahy had been able to pass an amendment in relation to the illegal detention of Senator Leila, that what you should be looking at are amendments.

Apparently the Duterte propagandists couldn’t find it.

In truth, it’s just all on that same page. If they click on the tab for “Committees” and actually read through the text of S.Report 116-126, they would find the following. Note that this report is to be printed as accompaniment to S.2583 and includes details of the actual appropriations that are discussed generally by S.2583.

Anti-Kleptocracy and Human Rights.—The Committee is concerned with the lack of information sharing between the Departments of State and the Treasury regarding the implementation of sanctions on foreign individuals for direct  or indirect involvement in significant corruption or gross  violations of human rights, pursuant to the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. Not later than 60 days after enactment of the act, and following consultation with the appropriate congressional committees, the Secretary of State shall submit to such committees a plan to improve the coordination of such efforts, including to ensure the Departments will jointly develop and implement sanctions, as appropriate. <emphasis mine>

And then the revision on Prohibition on Entry follows:

Prohibition on Entry.—The Secretary of State shall apply subsection (c) to foreign government officials about whom the Secretary has credible information have been involved in the wrongful imprisonment of: (1) Mustafa Kassem, an American citizen imprisoned by the Government of Egypt and whose health is failing; and (2) Senator Leila de Lima who was arrested in the Philippines in 2017. In addition, the Secretary shall apply such subsection to officials of the Governments of Turkey, Egypt, or Saudi Arabia about whom the Secretary has credible information have been involved in the wrongful detention of locally employed staff of a U.S. diplomatic mission or a U.S. citizen or national.

While we’re on the right website, the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act allows the US President to sanction anyone who is:

(1) responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights committed against individuals in any foreign country who seek: (A) to expose illegal activity carried out by government officials; or (B) to obtain, exercise, defend, or promote internationally recognized human rights and freedoms, such as the freedoms of religion, expression, association, and assembly, and the rights to a fair trial and democratic elections.

But also, it gives the President the right to sanction anyone who has:

(2) acted as an agent of or on behalf of a foreign person in a matter relating to an activity described in paragraph (1).

So the next question should be: do propagandists count? If our experience with the Marcoses is any indication, the answer would be yes. If the present experience is any indication—especially this part where the public is deliberately being misinformed about provisions that DO exist, and amendments that ARE actually there—all towards discrediting anyone at all who is now on Senator Leila’s side, then the answer should be yes.

As with Duterte’s men suddenly pushing for Charter Change, his propagandists for RevGov, while Duterte himself can do NOTHING but sleep and take jabs at VP Leni and every other perceived enemy, the stench of desperation is in the air. We should all figure out how to take advantage of it.***