EVERYTHING COMES AROUND. The strongman that former president Rodrigo Duterte once was now shivers, claiming to be too “old, tired, and frail.” Yet, his weakness stems not from decline, but from turning tail before the seat of judgment. “Kill them all,” he once declared, yet today he becomes the opposite of that ruthless statement. The iron-fist invincibility he carefully built over years of political rule fades in comparison to his refusal to modestly answer the call for accountability.
Almost a decade since the onslaught of Duterte’s War on Drugs embedded within a police operation called Oplan Tokhang, the named and unnamed graveyard of casualties continues to linger as the call for accountability grows louder and more urgent.
Indubitably, pieces of evidence proved way beyond doubt how the operation led to burials ending for families with no choice but to enact one of the famous Filipino superstitious beliefs of putting chicks and grains on the departed’s casket—a practice done in representation of how every chick’s peck on the grains is a knock on the conscience of the offender and a knock for justice, in hopes that it would be served.
“‘Kill them all,’ a three-word strong statement that painted the country red, was uttered by a man who is now prosecuted on three counts of murder, with charges elevated to crimes against humanity.”
By sheer chance, Tokhang was meant to “knock and plead” in Visayan language—to knock upon the flagged addict’s morale and plead with them to redirect their paths. Now, as Tokhang clearly strayed away from its acclaimed peaceful execution and intention, the knock does not belong to the brainchild of the Duterte administration, for their pretentious knocks cannot be heard over the knocks of the thousands of chicks.
Belittled those who were not cast in his own distorted image. Directed curses even at the Creator Himself. Authored blatant directives of summary executions. Took pride in withholding moral consideration from those he branded criminals and addicts without judicial process. Made homophobic and sexist remarks, even joked about sexual harassment — all in the name of an unchecked liberty he believed he possessed. For he always had the option to take it all back, to retreat behind “Duterte humor,” or to cloak it in some unearthly, irrational rationalization.
“Kill them all,” a three-word strong statement that painted the country red, was uttered by a man who is now prosecuted on three counts of murder, with charges elevated to crimes against humanity.
A year after his detainment, years after exasperating Duterte shenanigans, the strongman image crumbles into a breakdown, as he equates strength with avoidance, far from the true strength found in accountability.
Strength can never be built upon the fact of invincibility and political theatricals. Absence of courage can never be substituted with a speculative waiver letter with attestations that he is being politically persecuted and is held by a court that lacks jurisdiction, in a pity-party mention of facing death inside the cell when he cannot even make himself face accountability in the modest way expected of a man who claims he loves his nation and takes pride in his legacy.
Make everything a version in the Duterte narrative. But the knocks would be heard even more loudly as the victims and their families, as well as their lawyers, now step foot in The Hague to witness the confirmation of charges, as the hearings will push through in determination of justice — and all I wish is for the universal principle of cause and effect to do its job and shape the trajectory of the time ahead in proportionate accordance with the deeds done in the past.
Email me at thebedan_newseditor@sanbeda.edu.ph