Press Release
November 29, 2019

Dispatch from Crame No. 656:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima's statement on Duterte's latest rhetoric about violence and killing people

Duterte boasts that his drug war is eliminating drug lords. He says he has killed a number of them and that in fact, he threw their bodies in Manila Bay or into the ravines of the Cordilleras. He wants to give the impression that the drug war is being silently won because these summary executions are not publicized by his administration and are kept secret because, after all, they are illegal and he can be prosecuted by the ICC for these killings.

But the show-off that he is, Duterte cannot resist boasting that he has in fact personally disposed of the bodies of drug lords in Manila Bay and the Mountain Province. Amidst the criticism that his drug war has not brought down a single drug lord, and because VP Leni Robredo was doing a good job before he fired her as she was looking more presidentiable every day she stayed on as ICAD co-chair, Duterte explained that Mayor Parojinog of Ozamis and Mayor Espinosa of Albuera are just some of the drug lords he has eliminated. This is of course a tacit admission that he had them summarily executed under the pretense of arresting them or searching their persons and property.

The problem with Duterte's EJK strategy in the drug war is we can never measure its "success" by his mere boasts that he has dumped bodies in Manila Bay and the Cordilleras. How do we know that they were really drug lords if there was no trial to establish their guilt?

Drug lords nga ba ang mga pinagyayabang ni Duterte na itinapon niya sa Manila Bay at sa mga bangin ng Cordillera? Because of the variety of people Duterte had ordered killed, according to no less than his DDS right hand Arturo Lascanas and hitman Edgar Matobato, how do we know if those he had ordered killed are drug lords or just ordinary people he thinks he has a score to settle with? We will never know. He asks that we simply trust him by his honor and take his word for it. We all know what both are worth. Nothing.

Drug lords or not, they were human beings. And to kill a human being is the greatest crime of all. There are no ifs or buts about this.

This man is indeed pure evil! Two years ago, Duterte told boy scouts during the World Scouts Foundation Day to become policemen so they can kill drug addicts. In the same year, at the opening ceremony of the 2017 Palarong Pambansa, he talked about eating terrorists' liver in front of young athletes. And now, he spewed his usual rhetoric about violence at the awarding of the 2018 Presidential Award for Child-Friendly Municipalities and Cities yesterday.

Wala siyang pakialam kung sino ang nakakarinig ng mga mura, karahasan, at kababuyan niya - bata, matanda, mga kababaihan, ang Santo Papa.

This is how violence is normalized in the minds of young people by the President who swore with his life to protect them. Kung hindi sila pinapatay o inuulila, tinuturuan naman silang lumaking maging marahas at walang pagrespeto sa karapatang pantao. Children should be kept away from this evil incarnate lest he completely poisons them with his vileness.

And oh, Mr. Duterte, you also said that being on the other side of the establishment is vogue, a fad. You are wrong. As long as there is injustice spawned by the likes of you, there will always be people standing up against the establishment. Ikaw yung uso lang. Hindi nagtatagal.

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