I am one of many who gave the Duterte administration a chance. Despite not voting for him, and despite having been very critical of the killings attributed to him in Davao, I thought he deserved about the amount of time I gave PNoy to get used to the position. A year, maybe?

But six months into his term, there were already 6,000 killings attributed to Duterte’s war on drugs, and instead of stopping, he was on a roll, consistently egging the police on, pushing them to kill suspects, and promising them pardon if they kill innocents (or rape women as he promised the military). Instead of backing down and reconfiguring the drug war given the growing body count and contingent outrage, Duterte instead kept saying he will not stop the war on drugs, these people all deserved to die.

Fast forward to the present and there is no other word to describe Duterte by but tyrant. The stage was set for this point where his House of Representatives is giving him absolute power on a silver platter, delivering all that he asks for to ensure that he will not be held liable for any of the violence on our streets and the abuse of our rights.

Things are coming to a head, and it seems it’s important to take stock by reminding ourselves why it has come to this, towards hopefully understanding better where we go from here.

How did we lose our rights in 10 months?  (more…)