Far-fetched to compare Ninoy to Duterte–Palace
- Duterte as Ninoy? “Farfetched,” scoffed the Palace, in reaction to the comparison made by VP Sara Duterte between her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, and the late Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr.
- Ninoy Aquino “never had any record of mass murder or crimes against humanity,” Palace Press Officer Undersecretary Claire Castro.
- “VP Sara likened her father to the late Ninoy Aquino? It seems we never heard the former president compare himself to Ninoy, but he did compare himself to [Adolf] Hitler,” Castro said, recalling that in 2016, Duterte drew parallels between his brutal war on drugs and Hitler’s extermination of Jews before and during World War II.
- The August Twenty-One Movement (Atom), which was formed to protest Aquino’s assassination in 1983, noted “how desperate the family of the former president is nowadays,” and that “perhaps this is part of the strategy to paint themselves as the underdogs.”
Malacañang on Monday rejected the comparison made by Vice President Sara Duterte between her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, and the late Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., even as it said there was no basis for her fear he may be killed upon his return to the country.
“It’s too far-fetched to compare former President Duterte to Ninoy Aquino, who never had any record of mass murder or crimes against humanity,” Palace Press Officer Undersecretary Claire Castro said in a briefing.
Aquino, the most vocal critic of former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.’s declaration of martial law, was assassinated on Aug. 21, 1983, upon his return to the Philippines from a three-year exile in the United States.
The younger Duterte, who spoke in a program at the Netherlands over the weekend, said her father, who is currently detained in The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity, wanted to go home.
“Pa, your desire to go home will be your end. You will become a Ninoy Aquino Jr.,” she recalled their conversation to her supporters. She added that her father replied: “If that is my fate, then so be it. As long as I can go back to the Philippines.”
Hilter comparison
“VP Sara likened her father to the late Ninoy Aquino? It seems we never heard the former president compare himself to Ninoy, but he did compare himself to [Adolf] Hitler,” Castro said.
She recalled that in 2016, Duterte drew parallels between his brutal war on drugs and Hitler’s extermination of Jews before and during World War II.
Noting that Hitler had murdered millions of Jews, Duterte said he was also willing to kill three million drug addicts in the Philippines to solve the country’s drug problem.
Castro stressed there was no truth to the Vice President’s claim that her father’s life would be in danger in the Philippines.
Present proof
“Where are these threats coming from? As a matter of fact, even the so-called threats against Vice President Sara Duterte haven’t been presented to the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police yet,” she said.
“We need materials, evidence, before making these kinds of statements,” she added.
The Aquino family also took issue with the Vice President’s remarks, saying Aquino and Duterte were completely different based on historical facts.
“If we look back at our history, we can see that Ninoy had a much different fate compared to what former President Duterte is going through,” they said in a statement posted by the Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation on its Facebook page.
The August Twenty-One Movement (Atom), which was formed to protest Aquino’s assassination in 1983, also disputed the “comparison” between Aquino and Duterte.
“We understand how desperate the family of the former president is nowadays,” Atom said in a statement. “And with the forthcoming elections, we also realize that perhaps this is part of the strategy to paint themselves as the underdogs. Because Filipinos love underdogs after all.”
“But we are sorry to say that President Duterte is a poor copycat of Ninoy Aquino,” it stressed. “He has to answer to the thousands of families who lost their loved ones and were deprived of their due process.”
“Ninoy’s legacy is rooted in his unwavering opposition to authoritarian rule and his commitment to democratic ideals,” Atom said, adding that Duterte’s tenure was marked by policies that raised “significant human rights concerns.”
