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BY HERBERT VEGO
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Tuesday, March 7, 2017
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TWO unpalatable facts haunt President Rodrigo Duterte: disease and old age. By his own admission, he suffers from the spine-degenerative Buerger’s disease which he caught from years of cigarette smoking; and which, according to Dr. Irene Vergara of the University of Santo Tomas Hospital, forced him to quit smoking. It causes arterial swelling and blood clots, thus restricting normal blood circulation.
To free himself from pain, he takes Fentanyl, a regulated, stronger-than-morphine opioid.
Is Buerger’s the reason why he has repeatedly “joked” about dying? A case in point was when he told an audience of Filipinos in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Dec. 13, 2016, “This is my last hurrah. I am not sure if I will still be around by the end of my term.”
Based on the latest finding of the World Health Organization, the average person residing in the Philippines has a lifespan of 68.5 years. Duterte is older at 71 going on 72 come March 28.
The President’s health and age, no doubt, are primordial reasons why both his political allies and adversaries worry over their own future. Although the issue on presidential succession is well defined in the Constitution, “spare tire” Vice President Leni Robredo faces the possibility of being booted out because of the “electoral fraud” protest lodged against her by contender Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.
We therefore don’t see the “vice” stepping up over and above the diverse pro-Duterte political forces who would scramble for power among themselves in case Duterte fades away amid a supposed destabilization plot which Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez attributes to “allies of former President Aquino.”
But how could the opposition Liberal Party (LP) seize power when most of its members have already jumped over the administration bandwagon? It could only do so in convergence with disgruntled elements within the Duterte circle, including sympathizers of incarcerated Sen. Leila de Lima and dismissed National Irrigation Authority administrator Peter Laviña.
The “courage” of Sen. Antonio Trillanes, steadfast in accusing Duterte of stashing away P2.4 billion in hidden bank accounts, implies undisclosed strong connections – say, with his “mistahs” at the Philippine Military Academy who now occupies high positions in the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
Then, too, the confession of a retired police officer, SPO3 Arthur Lascañas on his involvement in the Davao Death Squad (DDS) killings when Duterte was still mayor of Davao City – in effect reversing his denial before a Senate inquiry – bolsters the earlier testimony of another self-implicating cop, Edgardo Matobato.
It’s a paradox that the two have found “safety” in holding Duterte liable for ordering them to eliminate suspected drug pushers and critical broadcaster Jun Porras Pala; and for having also named the other cops in the alleged operation. Why would they risk their lives if they were not telling the truth?
The Matobato-Lascañas exposés are among the fodders that two prestigious human rights organizations – Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch – have used in urging the United Nations’ Human Rights Council to investigate the “human rights calamity in the Philippines.”
A defiant Duterte talked back last Thursday, “When you kill criminals, it is not a crime against humanity. The criminals have no humanity.”
Rather than cultivate “killings fields”, shouldn’t the President have sought the intervention of his Chinese friend and counterpart, President Xi Jin Ping? As admitted by spokesman Derrick Carreon of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, “The majority of the meth we have come from China.”
Remember, China is the ally Duterte has embraced at the expense of the United States.
But then, let Digong Duterte be reminded that the Americans had played a part in the unexpected downfall of used-to-be popular President Ferdinand Marcos./PN
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