You know how Duterte propaganda has lived off this idea that he is angry at the rich? That he is against the elite? That he is against their abusive ways, and anti-people policies? This is how refusing to give the Lopezes of ABS-CBN their franchise is justified; this is how the Prietos of the Philippine Daily Inquirer lost their power. This also sustains the idea that Duterte is pro-poor, para sa masa, si Tatay Digong kakampi ng mahihirap na Pilipino.
We have of course disproven this, regardless of what his base believes. He himself has admitted that majority of those killed in his drug war are poor — because the rich addicts are using other drugs anyway, and the wealthy who run the cartels, the drug manufacturing, the drug imports, he has no power to jail them.
But there’s an even more obvious, more blatant, display of Duterte siding with the rich: and it’s in his utter silence about issues that involve his oligarch, taipan, crony allies. Let us count the ways, shall we?
George Ty’s estate is being allowed to get away with declaring that his estate is only worth P3 billion pesos; this was the richest man in the Philippine in 2018 with a net worth of P170 billion pesos. Imagine this discrepancy that this taipan’s family is being allowed to get away with, and everyone seems to be ready to let it slide, from mainstream media which has NOT covered this discrepancy, to the Securities and Exchange Commission (which accepted this July 2018 declaration).
But of course there is also government itself, where when it is a declared Duterte enemy, the SEC moves quickly and decisively. There was Rappler, for example, but more recently there was that purported scam of Kapa Community, which the SEC ran after given Duterte’s “spiritual adviser” Quiboloy — himself a questionable character running what looks like a cult.
This proves nothing else but that Duterte will use these institutions to shut down his declared enemies, but will also turn a blind eye when it’s the rich and powerful who are using these institutions to declare as little as P3 billion pesos of a net worth of P170 billion.
Speaking of billions in pesos, there are Duterte cronies — the ones who are getting project-after-project approved, the ones who are displacing whole communities with nary a peep from the courageous, brave President who says he will not stand for the abuses of the rich and wealthy.
Let’s try that on for size. Ramon Ang’s Bulacan airport is a project that was proposed as early as 2014, but the PNoy government had the good sense to say no. Now, Duterte and his men at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department of Transportation are pushing through with it, never mind that it will displace thousands in the coastal communities that have lived off the waters, but also have been providing all of us with food.
This is the same Duterte who has said no to reclamation projects on Manila Bay, but apparently doesn’t care that Ramon Ang is reclaiming 2,500 hectares of productive waters, the kind that allows for thousands in the coastal community to live year-in, year-out, with food on their tables, employment that sustains families, and providing for the community within and beyond Bulacan. This is the same Ramon Ang project that has destroyed 600 mangroves, the same project that will worsen the already terrible flooding in a Bulacan that’s already suffering the consequences of over-development — and we’re not talking about reclamation just yet.
Speaking of which, as with the Ty story, media has generally stayed within the press releases of San Miguel, which belies reclamation and instead skews the story to say this is “land development.” Well, since the “land” they are “developing” is underwater, that would make it a reclamation project.
Now with the February 2019 transfer of the Philippine Reclamation Authority to the Office of the President, this can only mean that Duterte is fully-responsible for the approval of this Ramon Ang project — a man-made disaster waiting-to-happen that will affect fisherfolk community’s lives and livelihood, and all of our food, environment, and ecology, not to mention Bulacan’s heritage sites.
Speaking of man-made disasters, what else can we call what Duterte crony Dennis Uy is doing in New Clark City in Pampanga? This is a 9,450-hectare project that is effectively destroying the environment, displacing communities and the indigenous, in the name of building a “new city.” Considered as a “big-ticket project of the Duterte government,” this is clearly Duterte siding in favor of his campaign funder and crony Uy — and for what? A development that will cater only to the rich and wealthy, the businesses and oligarchs.
A development under the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), it’s clear that this is yet another case of Duterte’s people sacrificing the lives and livelihood — and whole communities — in the name of serving investors and cronies like Dennis Uy. After all, even when they deny that communities will be displaced, they also assert that they are “making available financial assistance packages worth P300,000 per hectare, as well as in-site relocation sites for those affected by the project.”
Pray tell, if no one’s going to be affected, why these assistance packages? In fact this Duterte crony project will affect FILIPINO HERITAGE, given that it is the life and livelihood, the ancestral lands, of our Aetas. And no, it doesn’t matter whether or not government will find Aetas saying they don’t mind the development — it is the government itself that should know to value our communities, indigenous and otherwise; it is government itself that should be think about the environmental impact of these developments. And please, saying that this is a “green city” doesn’t mean anything — if Dennis Uy wanted to be environmental, he would stop ruining the environment and whole communities in the name of a “city.”
Speaking of ruined environments and communities, we only need to look at where we live to know that Duterte’s letting the wealthy get away with murder. Welcome, the first on Duterte’s list of allies … if not, cronies: The Ayalas. You know how Duterte said no to casinos? That had a caveat: unless you’re an Ayala.
Because in the name of a Solaire Casino, the Ayalas are being allowed by this government to destroy Sitio San Roque, a community that has every right to claim its space, that has lived in this space far longer than any Ayala development has. For over a decade, San Roque residents have been slowly but surely being demolished — an obvious strategy to keep the media away, because a large-scale one-time big-time demolition would surely get in the news. But small-scale, piecemeal demolitions? Not a peep from mainstream media.
One realizes that for all of Duterte’s propaganda against mainstream media, he is in fact being propped up by it. And when it comes to big business, oligarchs, and his cronies, the media is as quiet as Duterte is blind.
And the rest of us who see it? Between a complicit mainstream media, a government that cares only for the rich, and projects that displace and disenfranchise the poor, what is there for us to do? ***