Du30 hits back at Marcos to push PDP-Laban bets
- “There is one president who is really into drugs… Drug addiction is long-term… Marcos will be crazy.” And so ex-President Duterte rallied support for his senatorial bets by clapping back at his successor.
- Reelectionist Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa wasn’t concerned whether his hands were tainted with blood “if we need to protect the lives of good people.”
- Another party candidate, lawyer Jayvee Hinlo, predicts that VP Sara Duterte will not be convicted if all the PDP-Laban senatorial candidates win.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday rallied support for candidates of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), while taking a swipe at President Marcos, whom he again accused of being a drug addict.
“There is one president who is really into drugs. Not really crazy but drug addiction is long term,” he said in a speech at the party’s proclamation rally at the historic Club Filipino in San Juan City.
“Marcos will be crazy,” he said to applause and laughter from the crowd who packed the same hall where Corazon Aquino took her oath after the President’s father and namesake was ousted by the Edsa People Power Revolution 39 years earlier.
“Maybe he could reach the age of 80, but by that time, he is no longer moving. Either he is standing in his room or sleeping,” Duterte said.
He was accompanied by his son, Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte, who accused the Marcos administration of pulling the Filipino people back into an abusive regime, a reference to the Marcos dictatorship.
“More than four decades ago, the PDP was formed and stood firm against the oppressive regime of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. Today, the lives and future of Filipinos are once again being put at risk,” the Davao mayor said before his father spoke.
“As we strive toward a progressive future, the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is pulling us back into an abusive and oppressive government,” he added.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the rally before the former president arrived, reelectionist Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa said that he wasn’t concerned whether his hands were tainted with blood as long as these came from bad people.
The former national police chief, who implemented the brutal drug war of the ex-president that left thousands of mostly poor people dead, was reacting to Mr. Marcos’ statement that no one among the administration’s senatorial candidates in the May polls had blood on their hands.
Earlier Marcos attack
Speaking at the Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas proclamation rally at the packed Ilocos Norte Centennial Arena last Tuesday, the President attacked Duterte and some of the PDP-Laban candidates.
“Cast this in stone,” Dela Rosa said, “I don’t care if my hands are tainted with blood if we need to protect the lives of good people.”
Duterte and Dela Rosa have been charged with crimes against humanity in the war on drugs at the International Criminal Court.
Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, another PDP-Laban reelectionist, was linked to the drug war during an inquiry in the House of Representatives.
One of the urgent matters that the incoming senators will have to tackle after they take their seats in July will be the trial of impeached Vice President Sara Duterte. The election of her supporters was one of the rallying cries of PDP-Laban.
Assuring Sara
Another party candidate, lawyer Jayvee Hinlo, was not shy in saying that the Vice President will not be convicted if all the PDP-Laban senatorial candidates win.
“VP Sara, we are your allies. Nothing will happen to you,” he said.
In a message flashed on a wide screen during the proclamation rally, the Vice President called on Filipinos to vote for the entire PDP-Laban senatorial slate.
“I believe that the power to change the course of our country is with the people by voting for the rightful people, honest and who are working hard for our country,” she said.
Former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares dared his fellow House candidates to publicly declare their position on the impeachment of the ex-president’s daughter, noting that accountability for public funds should be a crucial election issue.
“The people need to know which candidates are willing to call for accountability in the misuse of public funds and who are turning a blind eye to abuses of power,” he said in a statement.
Call special session
Colmenares, who is eyeing a return to the House after his last term in 2016, also urged the President to call for a special congressional session so that the Senate can immediately convene itself into the impeachment court after Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero said the trial would likely be held in July.
“It is unacceptable to prolong the impeachment trial any further,” Colmenares said.
He said the House prosecutors only needed to focus on the “strongest ground,” which he implied was the unauthorized use of confidential funds of the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education that “can easily be proved” using official documents from the Commission on Audit and the Department of Budget and Management.
Dela Rosa earlier said he intended to campaign “Oplan Tokhang” style, which was used by the police in Davao City where officers went house-to-house of drug suspects, knocked on their doors and appealed to them to stop their involvement in drugs.
“We can also do that during the campaign,” he said.
“It’s really like tokhang—knocking and pleading. We will knock on the people’s houses. If they are smiling when they open the door, I will ask them to vote for me. If not, I’ll apologize and just leave,” he added.
The senator was Duterte’s first Philippine National Police chief and the architect of his antidrug campaign.
Bato: Me, pro-China?
Dela Rosa also said he was willing to “wage war” in the West Philippine Sea to prove that he is not pro-China, also in response to another swipe from Mr. Marcos against alleged pro-Chinese candidates.
“I’ll be frank with you. I am willing to die in the West Philippine Sea if they say I am pro-China. I am willing to wage war there in the West Philippine Sea,” the senator said.
“Pro-China? I challenge them, if they want I will give them a gun and maybe we will attack the bullies in the West Philippine Sea,” he said.
The other candidates of PDP-Laban are lawyer and singer Jimmy Bondoc, lawyer Raul Lambino, former actor Philip Salvador, Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, jailed Pastor Apollo Quiboloy and Vic Rodriguez, who had served briefly as Mr. Marcos’ executive secretary and lawyer in his election protest against former Vice President Leni Robredo.
Mandatory drug test
In his speech at the proclamation rally, Rodriguez promised to amend the antiplunder law by reducing the threshold amount from P50 million down to P1 million, to “guard” the annual budget and to “bring back the death penalty to those who plunder our money.”
He also vowed to introduce a measure requiring all government officials to undergo mandatory drug tests, without exemptions.
“We will begin this with Malacañang,” Rodriguez said, eliciting applause and cheers from the audience.
Rodriguez also questioned whether each of the more than 200 House members who supported the impeachment complaint against the Vice President could have read the entire document before signing it and passing it to the next in just seven hours.
“And now, the Marcos administration is now even trying to steal the vice presidency. So that is why we have to understand one another, let us protect the 32 million Filipinos who legally, constitutionally, lawfully and democratically elected Vice President Inday Sara Duterte,” Rodriguez said. —WITH A REPORT FROM KRIXIA SUBINGSUBING
