Monitoring the arrest of Rappler’s chief executive officer Maria Ressa by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation Wednesday late afternoon, I was struck by the crudeness of the operation (serving the warrant of arrest past the court’s office hours).
With all the media attention the arrest was generating, both national and international, I waited for a statement from President Duterte. There was none.
I had several questions: Does the President know what was happening? Is he on top of the operation? Where is he?
What came to mind was August 21, 1983. Former Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. was shot upon arrival at the Manila International Airport by Rolando Galman, who was also killed.
The public later learned that then President Ferdinand Marcos was very ill and could not have been in a position to order the assassination of Aquino. Who then gave the order to kill Aquino? Thirty five years after, the Filipino people still do not know despite the fact that his widow and son were elected president and could have probed into the murder that drastically changed the country’s political course.
But that was not the situation last Monday. Although he was reported to be “not feeling well”two weeks ago, Duterte was reported to be in Laur, Nueva Ecija inaugurating a drug rehabilitation facility.