A Shakespearean tragedy pales in comparison to Philippine society’s real-life drama unfolding right before our eyes. Not even Richard III, whose protagonist has an insatiable lust for power and kills everyone who stands in his way, comes close.
Here is Rody Duterte, former president of this nation of 120 million, proud and unapologetic as he told a Senate inquiry on the war on drugs – a hearing which he ended up hijacking with his still potent Duterte magic – that he had maintained a death squad of gangsters, including crazy rich people, who wanted to kill other criminals when he was mayor of Davao.
We already knew this, but hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth is still surreal, shocking and disturbing.
It’s tragic that upon hearing this, the crowd in the Senate session hall gallery seemed not to care, even laughing at Duterte’s jokes and seemingly unaffected by his jaw-dropping responses. One will lose count of the number of PIs – uttered like a true gangster – which reverberated in the Senate hall.
Here is an ex-mayor and ex-president talking about deaths and killings which he allowed as mayor – to rid his city of criminals. He was judge, jury and executioner. We were fine with that then and still fine with it now. What a tragedy.
At the same time, however, Duterte denied authorizing police to gun down thousands of suspects in a bloody crackdown on illegal drugs he had ordered as president and which is the subject of an investigation by the International Criminal Court as a possible crime against humanity. (Associated Press, Oct. 29).
The way I see it, it was classic Duterte. He showed up to entertain, shock and give out some laughs through his trademark oratorical masturbation peppered with invectives. But most of all, he showed up to muddle the issue or the bombshells unearthed by the House of Representatives’ quad comm hearings.
For instance, he was quick to deny that he ordered the police to kill drug suspects when he was president.
He even said he is puzzled why the Justice Department hasn’t filed any case against him.
“I’ve been killing people for a long time, and they haven’t filed any case up to now?”
Duterte said he only killed criminals to keep his city peaceful and orderly. Some businessmen admire his leadership.
A tycoon who has a construction business said that during Duterte’s time as president, his construction workers stopped using drugs because they were afraid of getting caught and killed as others were.
But that’s our tragedy, too. Peace and order should not come at the expense of people’s lives. Innocent people were killed in the crossfire, or they became collateral damage because, as Royina Garma, who served as a long-time police officer in Davao, had testified, Duterte’s drug war included a reward system.
The families of these victims will be among those who will flock to the cemetery this coming All Souls’ Day. Another tragedy.
We cannot accept this even if it benefits us because when we disregard others’ right to due process, we vote against our own rights, too. As Desmond Tutu said, if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.
Now, what do we do next? What would the Marcos administration do following Duterte’s admissions and all the bombshells that came out of the hearings?
Would authorities finally ascertain the criminal liability of Duterte? Would the Marcos administration finally submit these materials from the congressional hearings to the International Criminal Court?
The government must also institute sweeping reforms in Philippine law enforcement to address police corruption and abuse, as Human Rights Watch urged. Our authorities have a lot to do other than just sit and be entertained by Duterte’s latest tirades.
PhilHealth funds TRO
The Supreme Court (SC) slapped a temporary restraining order on the transfer of PhilHealth’s “excess” funds to the national treasury.
The TRO effectively stopped the transfer of P29.9 billion, supposedly scheduled in November.
The amount represents the fourth and final tranche of the PhilHealth funds amounting to P89.9 billion that the Department of Finance (DOF) ordered impounded to fund the unprogrammed appropriations in the national budget.
Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said the DOF would respect the SC’s TRO in relation to the petitions filed questioning the utilization of PhilHealth’s idle, unused and excess funds.
However, he maintained that the DOF’s move to sweep the idle, unused and excess funds of government-owned and controlled corporations is a mandate under Republic Act or the GAA 2024, which was approved by Congress.
Indeed, the GAA 2024 has mandated it but I argue that this controversial move is morally unjust, because the government’s bigger mandate is to provide social services such as health and education to its citizens.
Anything less than that is yet another tragedy.
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Email: eyesgonzales@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.