Tag Archives: Drug War

komentaryo

Unfit of the Day: Why Duterte’s legal defense is unacceptable

There are many reasons to be entertained by the news that Rodrigo Duterte’s legal defense has decided to request that the International Criminal Court (ICC) “adjourn hearing indefinitely” because he is “not fit to stand trial.”

It is especially entertaining if one considers that for the past six months since his arrest, and since the family has been able to visit Duterte at the ICC Detention Center in the Hague, visiting family members have consistently stepped out to talk to the crowd, big and small, on what they call Duterte Street. And each and every time, they reassure this people: Duterte is okay.

If you’re on the Tiktok algorithm of the Dutertes, this is in fact what props it up. With the Vice President away from the Philippines most of the time, and her brothers not really worth any media coverage, what is here is massive content on Duterte based on updates from these family visits. And at no time did it seem like he has “cognitive impairment in multiple domains” that would make him unfit for anything at all.

During the June 2025 visits of Congressman Paolo Duterte, the image painted of the old man Duterte was of someone who has all his mental faculties together. According to Pulong, on June 16, Duterte had this message for his followers who were waiting outside the detention center: “Alagaan ang Pilipinas, alagaan ang mga Pilipino. Kaming mga pulitiko dadaan lang, ang importante bumuti ang Pilipinas during their time.” (Take care of the Philippines, take care of Filipinos. We politicians will be passing through, the important thing is to make sure the country become better during our time.)

And while both Pulong and his sister Vice President Sara Duterte would talk about how thin their father had become, the narrative was also consistent: thin, but okay.

(more…)

komentaryo

Duterte VS the ICC: A timeline of a man digging his own grave

Rodrigo Duterte’s statement saying the Philippines is withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC) would only be a surprise to someone who hasn’t paid enough attention to the moves of this President — (ill-)advised and otherwise. After all, this is a man who lives off shooting from the hip, declaring in no uncertain terms who the enemies are of nation, never mind that it reeks of double-standard at every turn, and protects his own men despite the stench of corruption and anti-people policies that now pervade his whole government.

The ICC statement, as such, is really just Duterte being Duterte. He is not disente, he does not care for what is appropriate or diplomatic, he will not apologize for his loud, dirty mouth. And he lies. He changes his mind, he shifts from one stand to another, he goes on the path of least resistance (be it China or Russia, or whoever’s willing to kiss his feet), and when faced with difficulty, his answer is violence — kill those people, call critics terrorists, bomb those schools, bomb those structures! And when held accountable for his actions, he will have the Chief Justice impeached, he will discredit the Ombudsman, he will decide to get out of a treaty that promises protection of Filipino citizens from systemic, state violence.

Duterte has often said about his oppressive, anti-people policies that we insist go against our basic rights: kung wala kayong kasalanan, bakit kayo matatakot? Seems like a question the President should be asking himself.

(more…)

komentaryo

Sacred cows in Duterte’s drug war: Peter Lim

We’ve always known this to be true: a majority of those dead in the drug war, whether in the hands of police or in summary executions, are poor; a small percentage that might be seen as “big fish,” are “rubbed out” in the way that a violent President’s orders have implicitly allowed and encouraged; and there is a select group of people who can get away with pretty much anything, drug-related and otherwise, as long as they are well-connected to Duterte and his men.

This is what’s called the Duterte double-standard. And this creates the select group of people who might be labeled as Duterte sacred cows.

The ones who can smuggle in P6.4 BILLION PESOS of illegal drugs and get away with it. The ones who can be pinpointed as drug lord, but get an audience with the President to declare his innocence. The ones who refuse to even prove their innocence because their father is the President of the Philippines.

(more…)

komentaryo

CJSereno VS Duterte: A timeline to impeachment (Part 1: 2016)

For anyone at all who even thinks for a minute that the CJ Sereno impeachment is exactly the same as the CJ Corona impeachment, here’s a huge difference: Corona was a midnight appointee of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who was allowed to do a midnight appointment, expressly disallowed by the Constitution but allowed by a CJ Reynato Puno Supreme Court. If that name’s familiar, he’s now in charge of the Consultative Commission for ChaCha (can you smell the stench of Prime Minister GMA?) — the rest of the story’s here. In that sense pNoy was actually and in fact undoing an illegal midnight appointment by GMA in his push to impeach Corona. At any other time, a President like Duterte would be praising pNoy for righting a wrong.

Ah, but we are in this time, when Duterte is the model of the most petty, most juvenile President this side of town — America has its own problems after all. And in this world where Duterte is king, and Congress reps and every other hooligan or clown lawyer is ready to fall at his feet and deliver whoever’s head he wants on a platter, we watched as Senator Leila de Lima was jailed for not much else but rumors and very flimsy, highly questionable proof of culpability; as we are watching Chief Justice Sereno being brought to an impeachment court.  (more…)

komentaryo

Unity, protest, cultural work #Sept21 #Luneta

It was in early August when I was asked to be convenor of the Movement Against Tyranny (MAT), a multi-sectoral gathering of various groups and individuals who are taking a stand against the killings, the state of tyranny, and the return of dictatorship.

Admittedly, I was hesitant about saying yes. I was not part of any organization, and was being invited primarily as independent writer. At this point I had already resigned my column with The Manila Times, which I realized afterwards was a security blanket I didn’t ask for — I was rarely the target of pro-government trolls and propagandists, and I would be told by a highly reliable source that it’s because the paper is considered “kakampi.”

While I was deciding on whether or not to say yes to MAT, Kian delos Santos was killed by policemen, adding to the thousands dead in the war on drugs. The Cultural Workers’ Statement (dated August 20) was written, gained traction, and has since gathered 1,279 signatures (and counting) from cultural workers across advertising, TV, film, theater, music, dance, visual arts, education, journalism, writing, comics, graphic design, social sciences. People I didn’t expect would put their names on that statement, actually did. There was hope, I thought.   (more…)