Paper tiger Duterte is digging his own grave
With Duterte’s pronouncement that he will now go after progressive and left-leaning organizations, he has no other way to go but down.
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte is nothing but a paper tiger. After declaring the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the New People’s Army as terrorist organizations, he will now go after progressive and left-leaning organizations which he tagged as legal fronts of the CPP.
Philippine government complicitly is evident and guilty in the unprecedented killings which have risen to alarming proportions under Duterte’s regime. But even without this kind of declaration, Duterte has been endlessly attacking the intensifying resistance of the Filipino.
On the last quarter of 2017, a number of progressive individuals were clear targets of his regime:
NOVEMBER
20 — Nine human rights workers on their way to a fact-finding mission in Nasugbu, Batangas were arrested by elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
23 — A Mangyan peasant leader was illegally arrested in Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro based on a trumped-up murder charge. Also, a local peasant group leader was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Cabadbaran City, Agusan del Norte.
24 — Three farmers were abducted by elements of the 20th Infantry Batallion in Palapag, Northern Samar
25 — An Anakpawis leader was shot dead by suspected members of the 16th Infantry Batallion in Davao City. Also, a store of a peasant leader in Jabonga, Agusan del Norte was strafed by 2 motorcycle-riding gunmen.
28 — An Anakpawis coordinator in Albay was threatened and harassed in two separate incidents.
6 — Two Lumads were detained for trumped-up charge of malicious mischief in Sultan Kudarat.
8 — The vice chairperson of a local chapter of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas in Agusan del Sur was illegally arrested by suspected state forces in Prosperidad town. Also a Pamalakaya organizer was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Batuan, Masbate.
Just recently, the spate of killings in Mindanao took the life of three people, including 2 peasant activists. The Duterte regime is on a wholesale of killings. Duterte, who is a murderer himself, emboldens his security forces which turned the country into a carnage, killing citizens of all walks of life.
With the martial law rule in Mindanao and the continuing implementation of counter-insurgency program Oplan Kapayapaan, human rights violations, extra-judicial killings, illegal arrests, threats and harassments
will soar to an unimaginable height.
Duterte and his political minions are attempting to conceal their grave
violations agains the Filipino people by shutting down slowly the
Philippine press and letting his charlatan army of pseudo-journalists and
trolls to take control of the flow of information.
Fascism and repression is Duterte’s answer to the people’s rising rage and disgust. While murdering thousands of his citizens, he goes non-stop as well in passing neoliberal policies that are an encumbrance to the Filipino people.
But this imbecilic and vapid character of Duterte is nothing new. He has been continuously threatening and killing the growing mass movement. And in all of his attempts, he has failed.
A dictator wannabe cannot silence the intensifying dissent and disgust of the Filipino people. With the escalating strength of the mass movement, Duterte should now sleep with his one eye open.
