Pres. Duterte and Chinese Pres. Xi Jinping in Beijing, Oct. 2016.
President Duterte takes pride in his being smart in matters of geopolitics. After all, as he more than once told his captive audience, he is a graduate of Foreign Service at the Lyceum University.
Recently, however, he revised it to just say he took up foreign service after he was exposed not to be in the list of those who graduated from Lyceum with a degree in foreign service.
Last Tuesday he again demonstrated his expertise in geopolitics belittling the United States for having “lost its will to fight.”
Topping the list of President Duterte’s achievements is the killing of some 20,000 suspected drug addicts and pushers. VERA Files photo by Luis Liwanag.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque announced last week that President Duterte’s State of the Nation address on July 23 will follow a new format where he will be talking to the people on matters close to his heart.
He will not be enumerating his achievements, Roque said, adding that that would be done at a separate occasion.
“So iyong mga achievement, siguro may mga ibang pagkakataon nang isa-isahin iyan,” he said.
Critics of Duterte immediately retorted on social media: “What achievements?”
Pres. Duterte receives the credentials of Ambassador-Designate of Malta to the Philippines John Aquilino in Malacañan Palace on January 9, 2017. Malacañang photo by King Rodriguez.
At the birthday party of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez last Friday, President Duterte again justified his being uncouth with the flawed reasoning that he did not study to become a statesman.
“Kaya ugali ko talaga, pang-mayor lang. Nung sinabi nila na hindi ako statesman, hindi naman ako nag-aral pang-statesman (My habits are for being mayor. They say I’m not a statement. I didn’t study to be a statesman.)
Behind President Duterte’s curse-laden talks is a man in panic.
And the one subject that drives him up the wall is his alleged huge bank deposits that Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV first exposed last week of April 2016, weeks before the election that he won.
The latest development is the receipt by the Office of the Ombudsman of his and his family bank records from the Anti-Money Laundering Council in connection with the plunder and graft complaints filed by Trillanes.
Pres. Duterte lambasts Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno, and Overall Deputy Ombudsman Arthur Carandang before members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Davao City Chapter. Malacañang photo by Joey Dalumpines.
The ghost of Jaqueline Hamill must have come back to haunt Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte for disrespecting her even when she was dead after having been gang raped twenty-seven years ago.
Duterte refused to apologize over his statement captured in a 1989 video where he was regaling the audience about the hostage-taking incident in Davao prison. “Si Mayor dapat nauna (the Mayor should have been first [to rape her],” he said to the laughter of the audience.
Told that the video has gone viral, he said, “I am even willing to lose the presidency. Do not make me apologize for something which I did,” he said in an interview with reporters Sunday. He added that he said it “in the heat of anger” justifying it as macho talk: “Ganon ang mga lalaki magsalita. O putang ina naunahan mo pa ako, (That’s how a man speaks. Son of a bitch. You beat me to her. [Expletive.}That’s a cliche” he said.
He said, “”I am sorry in general…I am sorry to the Filipino people” while clarifying that he is not apologizing to a particular entity or person.
