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BY HERBERT VEGO
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Duterte’s popularity ebbing
LIKE the so-called “Dutertards,” this columnist voted for Duterte primarily because of his promise to vanquish the illegal drug problem; and secondly because I could find no better choice among the other candidates.
However, recent events – such as the extrajudicial killing of Mayor Rolando Espinosa and the President’s threat to suspend the writ of habeas corpus – have unmasked something sinister about him. It’s something encapsulated in the saying, “The end justifies the means.” In other words, to achieve his goal – say of annihilating shabu dealers and addicts – he may choose any method regardless of its rightness or wrongness.
The President was obviously lying when he said, “I believe the version of the police” – that raiders from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) were forced to shoot “armed” Espinosa dead in his jail cell in self-defense. I need not belabor the rubout angle because the facts of the case have repeatedly filled the front pages for almost two weeks already.
And now he is threatening to suspend the writ of habeas corpus if the illegal drug problem persists, so that the police could arrest and jail anybody without warrant of arrest and beyond court intervention for a suspected crime, whether real or concocted.
Lawyers interviewed on the air for their interpretation of the President’s threat unanimously see him “testing the waters.” If he can get away with it because the public approves of summary killings on the pretext of eradicating narco-politics, then Congress and the Supreme Court might as well look the other way.
Apparently, the CIDG could not have raided the Baybay, Leyte provincial jail on their own just to “serve a search warrant.” Somebody up there must have flashed the green light. The President seems to be revealing something between the lines when he reiterated his support for the Espinosa killers.
The Espinosa rubout happened in the wake of two earlier fatal killings involving the police. First, a 51-year old Zenaida M. Luz of the Citizens Crime Watch was standing in front of her house in Calapan, Oriental Mindoro two when hooded men on a motorcycle opened fire at her. A police team chased the killers, who eventually held their hands up and introduced themselves as their fellow cops – Senior Inspector Magdalino G. Pimentel Jr. and Inspector Mark Son S. Almeranez.
Next came the “shootout with the police” that resulted in the death of Datu Saudi Ampatuan, Maguindanao mayor Samsudin Dimaukom and his nine companions in Barangay Bulatukan, Makilala, North Cotabato. The mayor’s convoy was on the road, allegedly to deliver illegal drugs to unnamed clients.
If it’s any consolation, we have senators and congressmen – including Duterte allies – who have denounced the above examples of extrajudicial killings. They have also warned Duterte against pushing through with the writ suspension in the absence legal grounds provided under Section 17 of Article VII, namely lawless violence, invasion or rebellion and only when the public safety requires it, for a period not exceeding 60 days.
If Duterte thinks that his popularity is sufficient to amass massive support for his right-or-wrong actions, he is mistaken. Remember the power-mad Adolf Hitler, whose popularity emboldened him to win German “patriotism” to the point of exterminating six million Jews. Eventually abandoned by his people, he allegedly committed suicide in an underground bunker in Berlin in January 1945 while running away from the invading Russians.
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CONDOLENCES to the bereaved families of the late Col. Rodolfo Paez Tamayo and Marcos Villalon, who are now in God’s good hands. The remains of Tamayo (retired, Philippine Army), 78, may now be viewed at St. Peter’s Memorial Chapel in Mandurriao, Iloilo City. He will be interred with military honors at the Garden of the Ascencion, Jibao-an, Pavia, Iloilo at 12 noon on Sunday, Nov. 20 after a 10 a.m. necrological mass thereat. To quote his daughter Mae, “I will miss you. But the heavens must be rejoicing.”
We also miss the late Mark Villalon, a media colleague, daddy of Kathy and past president of the Iloilo Press Club. His body now lies in state at the Cosmopolitan Somo Funeral Homes on Delgado Street, Iloilo City. Interment will be announced later./PN
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