After he threatened to punch former Sen. Lilia ed Lima and slap ex-Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who dared him to do in exchange for signing a bank waiver, the unlamented former president Rodrigo Duterte exposed himself as a mere bully no longer capable of hitting a fly and making good on his threats.
Seen by about 8 million YouTube users, the episode at the quad committee hearing proved that Duterte’s short fuse indicates that he is withering under intense questioning by lawmakers. Like Duterte Jr., Duterte Sr. refused to take the oath, an indication that he wants to continue with his lies, only to be caught again and again. Both father and daughter have now taken two hits, and the third strike will knock them both out.
Duterte Sr. talked about not ordering anyone to kill but admitted he had a death squad as Davao City mayor; he denied having a reward system for the drug war when asked by Gabriela Rep. Arlene Brosas and fumed when asked to answer “yes” or “no,” telling the lawmaker she wasn’t an investigator. Fact-finding panels conduct investigations in case the so-so fiscal forgot. Then he claimed it was illegal for the police to kill “suspects” but ordered his murder squad to shoot “suspects” dead after goading them to fight back, as footage showed.
The Dutertes have this uncanny feeling that they are supported by the teeming millions who like his crass, uncouth style and they have their own “pala” crowd to cheer them on with their crazy narratives. Duterte Jr. is as bad as his dad, proving that the spawn doesn’t go far from rotten trees. Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio now reduces her antics as reactions to “political persecution” by the Lower House and a grand conspiracy hatched in Leyte and perfected in Ilocos Sur. The most telling blows against her credibility are her failure to explain the “rewards” that she paid in cash, in kind, “other products,” “medicines” and laptops, chairs, tables, desks, and office supplies.
The 1,347 acknowledgment receipts (ARs) produced by her office contained fictitious names, initials repeated hundreds of times, and not a sliver of evidence showed that the “information” purchased led to operations that can be justified as “intelligence gathering.” What information does Sara need? Information against her enemies? Like Marcos Jr. and Ferdinand Martin Romualdez? The Commission on Audit (COA), which is a stickler to the rules, already asked Sara and her underlings to return the P125-million that she had wasted in the dying days of 2022. They have to since Sara was not entitled to any confidential and intelligence fund (CIF) in 2022 when she technically had to operate and the budget left by former Vice President Leni Robredo. Sara also advanced the money from her 2023 budget to finance the acquisition of 13 satellite offices and three extension offices in 2022 for more than P1 billion and more than P800 million for these offices in 203. For these offices alone, she spent more than half of the budget of the Office of Vice President (OVP.) No other vice president wasted so much money for so many offices than Sara.
Similarly, there is nothing concrete in the answers of Duterte Sr. about the drug war, with his shills in the Senate repeating ad nauseam that the ex-president was lily-white and never issued “shoot-to-kill” orders, which, by their very nature, are illegal. The pompous declarations of Sens. Bong Go and Bato de la Rosa are enough to pin them down and require their inclusion in the criminal complaints lodged by the families of the 30,000 victims of Duterte’s drug war. Relatives of the thousands of other Duterte Sr. victims who died on account of the operations of the police and military under Memorandum Circular 32 in Bicol and the Visayas as well as Executive Order No. 70 creating the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflct (NTF-ELCAC) are also filing their cases against the Duterte gang before the International Criminal Court (ICC.)
Add Sara Duterte Zimmerman Carpio to the charge sheet and the two other Duterte spawn for sharing the CIF of Davao City to finance the operations of the Duterte Death Squad (DDS) from the time Duterte Sr, took over as mayor. The DDS was not only deployed against; the late Gen. Ramon Montano once recalled Duterte Sr.’s police bodyguards upon learning that he used them to harass his political enemies. Duterte Sr. went to Manila to plead that they be returned to Davao City to harass more people. He had to cool his heels and sleep in his mosquito net-protected bed before the bodyguards wound their way to Ecoland.
With Malacanang saying it will not interfere if Duterte Sr. and his co-accused are arrested by the International Police (Interpol) acting on behalf of the ICC prosecutor, the only thing left for the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the legislative panels to do is to transmit the certified transcript of stenographic notes of the proceedings and the additional evidence culled from witnesses, including the remittances of more than P2.4 billion by suspected drug kingpin Sammy Uy to the accounts of Duterte Sr,, Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio, Sebastian Duterte and Polong Duterte. More cash also flowed to Honeylet Avancena, Duterte’s partner, and mother to his daughter Kitty.
