[Newspoint] Duterte’s Frankenstein monster

One problem remains intractable and self-compounding, and that problem happens to be the Frankenstein monster Rodrigo Duterte created for us

Lest we lose perspective in our preoccupation with Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial, she is the anointed political heir of the man who brought untold horrors upon us when he was president — her own father. 

And as though in too much hurry to prove herself deserving of the anointment, and with a sense of impunity that runs in the family, she got herself impeached even before she could go halfway through her term as vice president, the very first national office she has held. And impeachment being a dicey thing, wait till she is acquitted, thus retained in office and re-certified eligible to go for the heights of notoriety achieved by her father — or higher.   

Her prosecutors appear confident, however, that she will be stopped. They have decided to pursue only one of the articles of impeachment and drop the other three. They made that decision after their final witness, a financial forensicist, had lent a strong close to their case on that one article — unexplained wealth. If they get her on that, she is removed automatically as vice president and barred from holding public office ever again. 

But then again, in a court where senators, instead of professional judges, sit, politics is always a factor, making acquittal a realistic prospect regardless of the quality of the evidence. And how is this for political weight? Sara Duterte is polling the best numbers for the presidential vote in 2028. I confess I don’t quite get it myself, knowing that we need only look back on her father’s time to see what we’re in for if she does win. 

Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency (2016-2022) was notorious across the board, but, for our purpose here — a quick, immediately relevant review of his treasonous, murderous, and corrupt regime — I have selected only a few cases, although cases sharply emblematic by themselves. 

Our first case is his war on drugs, which took tens of thousands of lives by extrajudicial means and for which he was flown to The Hague, the Netherlands, to face trial before the International Criminal Court for “crimes against humanity.” That war was generally explained away as Duterte’s own sick “final solution,” but it is turning out to be sicker than that. Duterte may have had Hitler’s deeply unprincipled conviction, but, apparently, he was all business too. 

Old and mostly hearsay allegations that his war was actually a coverup for his family’s own connection to the drug trade are gaining credence. Bank accounts held jointly by Rodrigo and Sara and submitted in evidence at the impeachment hearings have revealed payments from a drug-trafficking suspect.

The second case tends to show another unholy connection. Congressional and judicial investigations into the biggest corruption conspiracy in our history have also led to the Dutertes. The conspiracy involves over a trillion pesos in taxpayer money budgeted for flood control. Most of that money has been traced to the accounts of public officials as kickbacks and to those of private contractors as fees collected doing nothing or, at best, for doing token work. 

The investigations have shown that the most audacious among the contractors — the couple Curlee and Sarah Descaya — had their start in Davao City, the Dutertes’ dynastic preserve, and that they also began to flourish there. The investigations have further shown that Rodrigo Duterte’s son Paolo received a generous PhP51-billion outlay for flood control for his district as its representative in Congress. Both the rise of the Descayas and the rain of fortune on Paolo Duterte came during his father’s presidency. 

So well-oiled was the conspiracy that it went on for three more years after Duterte had ended his term. However, once exposed, under the succeeding government, the two cases began to be addressed with tighter administrative and systemic controls and more aggressive judicial prosecution. 

But one problem remains intractable and self-compounding, and that problem happens to be the Frankenstein monster Duterte created for us. 

Upon taking office, Rodrigo Duterte pivoted away from our traditional democratic partners and aligned his presidency to the dictatorial regimes of China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Soon enough, Duterte practically ceded our West Philippine Sea to China. It was a pact between betrayers: it came around the time that our claim to sovereignty over that sea was affirmed by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in a process to which China, the rival claimant, had itself agreed. 

Duterte not only gave the Chinese control over traffic on that strategic waterway and access to its marine resources and minerals, but also facilitated the pursuit of their colonialist ends. Now, a decade later, they have established an effective full run over those waters, using a dedicated force of ships and planes to keep out our own navy and coast guard, our own marine researchers, and our own fisherfolk who had made their living there all their lives until Duterte made his treasonous deal.

And if you now ask his anointed, Sara, about it, she would tell you, with the arrogant confidence that only a well-funded and well-protected collaborationist can exude, that it is us who are the “troublemaker[s]” in the West Philippine Sea — us Filipinos, us the rightful sovereign!

Stand her against the wall? We can’t even put her on the stand! – Rappler.com

Loading