This happened last Friday, Sept. 21, at the third Inflammatory Bowel Disease Clinical Forum of Asia Pacific Association of Sastroenterology held at [Shangri-La Mactan Resort and Spa, LapuLapu City, Cebu |
“Now back to medicine. You know, I’ll just end my talk by just.. allow me to give you a vignette of life.
“Historically, I took after my mother who was always constipated. That was her complaint. And but she lived to be 96 years old. So if you want to live forever, pray for constipation.
“Well, I’m telling you the truth. And that was also genetically maybe. And I have a son, Sebastian. He got it also and as a matter of fact, he started to have a leak because of…
There were two things that stood out in President Duterte’s one-hour-and-a-half hour tête-à-tête with Presidential Legal Counsel Sal Panelo: he didn’t want to talk about his health and he is obsessed with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.
After about ten minutes of monologue defending his attempt to nullify the amnesty granted to Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV by then President Benigno Aquino III Panelo wanted to talk about his health: “Puntahan naman natin ang mga agam-a gam ng taumbayan kasama na ang critics nyo na si Joma Sison. Sinasabi na kayo ay may sakit. Ano po ang masasabi nyo tungkol sa inyong kalusugan para marnig ng taumbayan?”
Duterte’s answer was about the alleged conspiracy of the Community Party of the Philippines and the Magdalo to topple him: “Alam nyo itong si Sison, pati itong Magdalo, pati itong ayaw sa akin, yung talagang hindi tumanggap sa akin ever since noong election, they have combined and we have the evidence and we have the conversation provided by a foreign country sympathetic to us. We don’t have the sophistication but the connections will be shown maybe any day now. I asked that it be declassified at ipakita nila sa lahat. Nahihigop lahat . They were in constant communication.
Panelo tried to stir back the conversation to the President’s health: “Sa punto po ng kalusugan, talagang malusog na malusog kayo, nakikita ng mga tao.”
Three days after Pres. Duterte attempted to nullify the amnesty granted to Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV by his predecessor Pres. Benigno Aquino III, the institutions that he expected to execute his order and support him blindly did not deliver forcing him to backtrack.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, in his media briefing in Amman, Jordan last Friday before the presidential party returned to Manila after official visits to Israel and Jordan, announced that the President has decided to abide with the rule of law.
Roque said Pres. Duterte had convened a cabinet meeting while he was in Jordan about his order to arrest Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV as contained in his Proclamation 572 : “Kahapon po, binigyan ko ng kumpirmasyon na nagkaroon po ng pagpupulong si Presidente sa lahat po ng Gabinete na sumama sa biyaheng ito. Pinag-usapan po nila kung ano ang magiging posisyon ng administrasyon tungkol po dito sa pag-revoke ng amnesty kay Senator Trillanes. At matapos po ang mahabang talakayan, nagdesisyon ang Presidente that he will abide with the rule of law; aantayin po niya ang desisyon ng hukuman, ng Regional Trial Court kung sila ay mag-i-issue ng warrant of arrest. So uulitin ko po, desisyon ng Presidente is he will allow the judicial process to proceed, and he will await the issuance of the appropriate warrant of arrest if there is indeed one to be issued ‘no before Senator Trillanes is arrested and apprehended.”
Duterte has set the stage for sacrificing Jose Calida. He has said he issued Presidential Proclamation 572 on the say so or Calida as Solicitor-General. Duterte, of course, knows that targeting Trillanes was a joint project between him and Calida. They both hated the Senator, and would take the first opportunity, no matter how clumsy, to neutralize him. Calida has in a sense borrowed Presidential Powers with the President’s complicity to try to extricate himself from the charge of conflict of interest in the way his security agency business cornered government contracts. It was a long shot, but Duterte has a way out — he could always put the entire blame on Calida, if the plan backfires.
Of course the plan has backfired. It has been so indefensible at its face value that no one was willing to lay his reputation on the line for the revocation of the amnesty. Calida clumsily tried to distance himself from the amnesty revocation action, saying with a straight face before media that he had nothing to do with it. But the DND and AFP who did not want to be left holding the bag pointed to Calida as the prime mover. He had tried to get the AFP and DND unnecessarily compromised in the caper, trying to dupe the AFP into arresting Trillanes without a proper warrant.
So now Duterte is poised to cut Calida loose, unless either of the two RTCs and the Supreme Court sustain Calida and Duterte and issue a warrant, or, in the case of the Supreme Court, refuse to issue a TRO against the arrest.
If Pres. Duterte thought that Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV would cower in fear and hide when he ordered the revocation of the amnesty granted to him and other officials who took a stand against the presidency of Gloria Arroyo on July 27, 2003 at then Oakwood Hotel (now Ascott) at the Makati Commercial Center and on November 29, 2007 at The Peninsula Manila hotel in Makati.
No, the 47-year old senator, who was imprisoned for more than seven years (he won his senatorial seat in 2007 while he was in detention) called Duterte a coward.
“Mr. Duterte, duwag ka. Inantay mo pang makaalis ka bago mo nilabas itong proclamation mo. (Mr. Duterte, you are a coward. You waited until you have left before your released this proclamation.)
President Duterte was in his elements again – spewing expletives, spreading lies, concocting fake news -when he was in Cebu Thursday last week for Mandaue city’s 49th Charter Day celebration.
And as usual, the audience lapped up everything : his cursing of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, his Leni Robredo bashing, his lack of respect for the Constitution, his preference for dictatorship and worse, his joke about rape.
Duterte seems to have an obsession about rape. He relishes relating incidents of rape to justify his sweeping, bloody war on drugs.
Irma J. Locasia, mother of Salvador J. Locasia, Jr. killed in a police operation on August 31, 2016;
Dennise B. David, father of John Jezreel T. David killed in a police operation on January 20, 2017; Maria C. B. Lozano, sister of Crisanto and Juan Carlos B. Lozano both killed in a police operation on May 12, 2017; Mariel F. Sabangan, sister of Bernabe F. Sabangan killed alongside Arnold S. Vitales in a police operation on May 15, 2017; Normita B. Lopez, mother of Djastin B. Lopez killed in a police operation on May, 18, 2017; Purisima B. Dacumos, wife of Danilo G. Dacumos killed in a police operation on August 3, 2017.
Last Tuesday, as the Supreme Court started hearing oral arguments on the legality of the withdrawal by the Duterte government from the International Criminal Court, the names mentioned in the first paragraph, held a press conference announcing their decision to go to the ICC in The Hague because they do not expect to get justice for their kin killed in Duterte’s bloody and indiscriminating war against drugs.
President Duterte showed up in Cebu last Tuesday at the conference of the League of municipalities Visayas island cluster walking and as usual, blustering, effectively squelching rumors that he was gravely ill and in coma, as shared by Netherlands-based Communist Party of the Philippines founding Chairman Jose Maria Sison.
Duterte was in his element blasting at Sison: “Comatose-comatose ka diyan. “
He said he is pushing his trip to Israel next month and threatened to slap Sison if he saw the CPP leader.
He said: “Ah sige, tingnan natin. Pag magpunta ako diyan, turista lang. Galing ako Israel. Tignan natin kung sinong — comatose. Hindi ka naman lalaki. You are not a man. Wala ka na. You are spent, you cannot… You are talking nonsense. “
He also said: “Pag nakita kita sa impyerno, p***** i** mo, sampalin kita. Really. Don’t expect to go to heaven. Pero pag nagkita tayo isang kanto sa impyerno… Totoo ‘yan ‘no, pag hindi kita sinampal… “
Twice last week, President Duterte complained about China’s activities in the South China Sea- a stark departure from his pandering stand since the start of his presidency.
Always, he was all praises for China’s President Xi Jinping, who will be coming here for a state visit in November, for the military equipment that he said was used in the war against Muslim extremists in Marawi and for the multi-billion infrastructure projects that it is undertaking in the country.
It’s easy to believe that President Duterte is tired and weary.He is 73 years old and not the healthiest person on earth. The two years as chief executive of the country showed that he does not have what it takes to be a national leader.
But he will not resign. For the simple reason that he has to make sure that he doesn’t end up in jail for all the crimes that he would be charged with once he is out of power.
That’s why he wants to make sure that his successor is someone who will protect him. And that’s former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos or Sen. Francis Escudero for him.