‘… all of these were coming back to haunt Rodrigo Roa Duterte, looking tired and old as he shuffled up the steps into a waiting private jet that would take him to the Netherlands.’
LIKE millions of Filipinos two nights ago, I was transfixed and fully attentive to the drama unfolding at Villamor Air Base.
I suppose very few Filipinos were left unmoved; no matter where you are on the political spectrum, the saga of a former Philippine president being taken in by authorities was truly one of those times when, years later, you can ask a friend “where were you when…”
If you’re “old enough,” like me, the drama at the airport wasn’t new; we’ve been through seeing the older Marcia disembarking from a plane in Honolulu; Erap boarding a boat on Pasig on his way out of Malacanang; and GMA being wheeled into St. Luke’s BGC with a neck brace and being told she was this close to certain paralysis and/or death.
But the Duterte saga was made all the more dramatic, in many ways, by irony: here was a man who once was so powerful he thought nothing of boasting to one and all that police action being conducted nationwide had his imprimatur. And policemen had nothing to worry about because he had their backs. And that international human rights organizations could go to hell, and international human rights laws were laws that could be ignored at will.
Because he was the president, he was the law, and as the law, all that he was orchestrating was for the good of the country and every law-abiding Filipino.
Only the criminals and the criminally minded need worry.
Shoot first and ask questions later, if at all.
Now, all of these were coming back to haunt Rodrigo Roa Duterte, looking tired and old as he shuffled up the steps into a waiting private jet that would take him to the Netherlands. The same international laws and treaties he ignored were now being used against him, and the same international tribunal he mocked was now taking him into custody to investigate and then pass judgment on him.
Note that not even God – whom he had mocked, too – intervened.
Of course, the Duterte saga once again exposed the divisions that exist in our society. One side of the Uniteam was up in arms; the other was closely monitoring the situation. The Pink-Yellows were rejoicing, the Reds, as usual, were torn, while the non-committed were feeling the whole gamut of emotions that Filipinos normally feel – including “awa”
But there was one thing that irritated me the most, more than the issue of whether the detention and transport of Duterte was “right” and “just” and so forth.
While TV footage focused on the aircraft as it sat on the tarmac, viewers shouted, “May TRO na!” oftentimes mixed with curses at the police.
It was fake news, a lie. The Supreme Court had not issued a TRO and, in fact, would deny it. But whoever started that lie was not only misleading thousands and thousands of Filipinos, he or she was also, effectively, creating even deeper distrust and stoking even deeper anger among an already angry segment of our population towards important institutions of society.
It also irritated me that so many were so eager to believe a lie.
But why should all this surprise me, yes?
In America, they idolize a man who sold them one big lie after another. Now he is president again, the second most powerful man in the US-SSR.
Filipinos are not any different or better in falling for lies.
