DUTERTE’S: Criminal promoters of impunity

“But Vice Mayor now Acting Mayor Rodrigo Duterte made it worse. For he has spoken out to the world, on the ABS CBN News Channel or ANC, about how proud he was of what his daughter had done and how, if were in his daughter’s place, he would not only have punched the sheriff but also kicked him. Like dog?”

DUTERTE’S: Criminal promoters of impunity

from: The Manila Times

Mayor Sara Duterte of Davao City and her father have just openly become criminal promoters of impunity.

Our leaders and officials must have the obliteration of the culture of impunity among their 10 most important goals. That culture tenaciously prevails in our society as tenaciously as the culture of corruption. In fact long-term corruption, perpetrated by lifetime holders of public office and power, is possible only because corrupt officials, who often also are criminal, can do their evil deeds with impunity. Which means these officials go on doing their bad deeds without fear of being prosecuted and punished.

The female mayor of Davao City was seen on nationwide TV newscasts punching a sheriff on the eye and on the face. Sheriffs do not fall under the jurisdiction of mayors. They are personnel of the judiciary. Mayors belong to the executive branch of our three-branched governmental system. The other two branches are the legislative and the judicial.

The principle of separation of powers governs the relationship between these three branches. The separation is important. Without it there would be no possibility of checks and balances among and between the three branches. The absence of a system of checks and balances will allow authoritarianism if not outright dictatorship to reign.

Not that authoritarian rule is totally absent in our country today. Twenty-six years have have passed after the ouster of the late Ferdinand Marcoss who had imposed a Martial Law regime and after that a legalistically cloaked dictatorship. But there are many pockets of dictatorial rule in the Philippines.

Pockets of dictatorial rule


Davao City, which has been the turf of the Duterte family for years and years, is said by many—locals as well as observers from outside Davao, including those from other countries—to be an example of a Philippine political subdivision that is run dictatorially in the name of maintaining peace and day-to-day orderliness. Davao is said to have “death squads.” Amnesty International and other human rights monitors are unceasingly working to have Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte (now acting mayor while his daughter Mayor Sara Duterte is on leave of absence) pinned down for his alleged culpability for extrajudicial killings and disappearances of “undesirables” and “criminal elements.”

It was bad enough that Ms. Duterte, like a hoodlum, attacked the sheriff, who meekly allowed himself to be beaten though he could not have down anything to fend off the blows because his arms were being held by the mayor’s men.

But Vice Mayor now Acting Mayor Rodrigo Duterte made it worse. For he has spoken out to the world, on the ABS CBN News Channel or ANC, about how proud he was of what his daughter had done and how, if were in his daughter’s place, he would not only have punched the sheriff but also kicked him. Like dog?

When asked for his reaction to the scandal his daughter’s action was causing, he put out the dirty finger sign (in Tagalog that gesture is called “pasulot” which is the nonverbal way of saying “F—ck you!” or in Tagalog “H——t mo!”) addressing, he himself said, columnists and other critics.

Speaking at ANC’s The Rundown, Mr. Duterte attempted to justify his daughter’s behavior. In any case, even if it were true that what made Ms. Duterte blow her fuse was Court Sheriff Abe Andres’ failure to accede to her request to delay the demolition by only two hours, she should have not forgotten that as an official her job is to uphold the rule of law and not use violence against a law enforcement officer.
What makes it even worse for her as a scofflaw is that she is also a lawyer. Lawyers are officers of the Judiciary. She could be disbarred.

Vice-Mayor now Acting Mayor Duterte also told the ANC audiences that his daughter would be willing “to accept the consequences of her actions including possible disbarment as a lawyer and even dismissal as a local official.” But that “She is not ready to apologize. She offers no excuses. No apologies, no nothing. So be it. All the yakkings of the mouth, millions of them…You want blood? We will give it to you. My daughter says she can live without the title of being a lawyer. She can win the elections next time around. So go ahead, they can do the worst. She is willing to receive the orders tomorrow,” he said.

Asked if the situation were reversed and he the Vice Mayor got punched during the demolition, how would he react. In tortured Tagalog, he said: “Barilin kita. Bakit mo ako suntukin? Ako nga ang peacemaker para walang gulo e to prevent bloodshed tapos suntukin ako. I’ll shoot you. (I’ll shoot you. Why do you box me. I am the peacemaker and stopping the disorder and preventing bloodshed and now you punch me.).”

Local Governments Secretary Jesus Robredo must put Mr. Duterte and Ms. Duterte in their proper places—and remind them that violence and taking the law into one’s hands are forbidden in our trying-to-be democratic and lawful Republic.