SENATE President Francis Escudero made a shrewd move in calling out Vice President Sara Duterte over her statements that tended to place the country’s armed forces opposite the Philippine National Police relative to the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte last March 11.
Whatever the vice president’s intentions were in taunting the military for its supposed silence when Maj. Gen. Nicolas Torre III, director of the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, bundled off the former president to a chartered jet to face detention and trial for crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court, she could not have anticipated being accosted about her designs.
Escudero demanding that the VP clarify her objectives for questioning the Armed Forces about not doing anything during her father’s arrest compelled everyone to confront an issue that most would rather shy away from: taking a measure of Duterte’s influence in the ranks of the military.
‘Lest they be overlooked, there are still groups and individuals who remain sympathetic to the former president who continue to employ intimidation as a retaliatory tool and to quash dissent.’
The absence of a riposte from the VP is in itself a reply – unstated yet unequivocal.
Whether deliberate or unplanned, the Senate president’s additional thrust pointing out a pattern that the Duterte family has tried to play for sympathy from the military more than once, placed that matter front and center.
In so doing, he has effectively removed that particular card from the deck.
As a threat, appealing for military intervention can now only grow weaker by repetition. Having been called out once, VP Duterte has to realize that she had overplayed her hand and lost.
Cementing the denouement of that particular exchange was a reminder from Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro that the Armed Forces of the Philippines had no law enforcement mandate in the arrest of the former president, and its role was limited to supporting the PNP.
Lest they be overlooked, there are still groups and individuals who remain sympathetic to the former president who continue to employ intimidation as a retaliatory tool and to quash dissent.
A photograph of a military doctor who was present during Duterte’s arrest has been circulated online, showing his name plate and directly accusing him of denying a supposed request from former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea to allow the former president to be taken to a hospital.
Several pro-Duterte accounts on social media have also posted badly disguised warnings to Gen. Torre about his coming retirement.
The PNP and the AFP leaderships would be well-advised to track down and hold to account individuals and groups behind these bullying tactics against their officers.
Indications from the ICC say more arrests are coming and it would serve the country well if malcontents and troublemakers are served notice beforehand that playtime is over.
