Thousands of opponents of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte turned out for a protest rally in Manila on Thursday, claiming that their country teeters on the edge of dictatorship. Meanwhile, Duterte publicly announced that he has ordered the police to kill his own son if he proves guilty of drug trafficking offenses.
“Politicians, indigenous people, priests, businessmen, and left-wing activists held marches and church masses accusing Duterte of authoritarianism and protesting at policies including a ferocious war on drugs that has killed thousands,” Reuters reports. “Signs saying ‘Stop The Killings’ and ‘No To Martial Rule’ reflected fears that Duterte would one day deliver on his threat to declare nationwide military rule like that imposed by late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.”
Other scenes from the protest rally included President Duterte burned in effigy, both alone and in tandem with Adolf Hitler, and demonstrators re-enacting alleged police executions carried out as part of Duterte’s drug war. The protesters expressed alarm at Duterte’s praise for former dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his closeness to the Marcos family.
Criticism of Duterte’s favorable stance toward China and his conduct of the anti-Islamic State campaign in besieged Marawi City was also offered. With the consent of the Philippines Congress, Duterte imposed martial law on the island of Mindanao through the end of the year to combat the insurgency, even though the constitution limits martial law to 60-day intervals.
One politician opposed to the president attempted to coin the phrase “Dutertatorship,” but it’s probably too much of a tongue-twister to catch on.
As Reuters goes on to note, Duterte is quite popular with the general Filipino public, and currently enjoys “one of the highest public approval ratings of a Philippines president.” A festive pro-Duterte rally held on the same day also drew thousands of attendees.
“This is to tell the people that ‘here we are, we are the majority who are happy with the government and not those few who are just griping,’” said former journalist Benny Antiportda, who helped organize the pro-Duterte rally.
At least two members of the presidential cabinet joined in the pro-Duterte rally. One of them, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, said it was important for supporters to protect democracy by expressing their support for the elected president.
“This is democracy. While others have their venue, the majority should also have theirs. The majority have remained quiet. They shouldn’t be,” said Cusi.
Duterte himself actually declared Thursday to be an official “Day of Protest,” inviting “all those who want to protest against the government, the police, everyone” to take to the streets.
“Even we from the government, we will protest because our salaries are low. We do not have equipment. We do not have allowance. Let us protest our government together,” the president said. He even promised communist rebels, who have been a factor in the deteriorating security situation, to join in the protests without fear of arrest, provided they refrained from committing crimes.
“Those in the media who are underpaid, those who are not being paid by the networks, the stingy ones … you protest the owners,” Duterte added.
A few days earlier, Duterte threatened to impose martial law if communist rebels “commit the mistake of staging a rebellion.”
“Say that there is fighting in the streets. I will not hesitate to impose martial law all throughout the country and order the arrest of everybody,” he said. He then proceeded to offer assurances that his vision of martial law was every bit as strict as what the Marcos regime practiced, which inspired the protests and warnings of impending dictatorship on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Duterte sought to prove his sincerity and determination in the drug war by announcing that he ordered the police to kill his own son, if the drug trafficking charges against him are proven.
“My orders are to kill you if caught, and I will protect the police who kill you,” Duterte recalled telling his son Paolo, 42, who is the vice-mayor of the Duterte hometown of Davao. Paolo Duterte has been accused of membership in a Chinese triad that smuggled crystal meth into the Philippines.
President Duterte explained that he would be comfortable with the police killing any of his children, if they were proven to be involved in drug trafficking. “There, you keep talking. That’s my son’s corpse,” he imagined saying to those who accuse him of hypocrisy or dishonesty in the drug war.
Of course, those comments are unlikely to reassure critics of extrajudicial killings, especially since the president explicitly spoke of protecting the police officers who would hypothetically gun down his son, just as his threats to arrest “everyone” and impose Marcos-style authoritarian rule will not assuage protesters’ fears of dictatorship.
Duterte’s enduring popularity testifies to the belief of many Filipinos that their problems with drug dealers and insurgents are severe enough to warrant the harsh measures Duterte has taken.
“The future of our country is at stake here. We should be united. Forget politics so we can end the drug problem once and for all,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said at the pro-Duterte rally on Thursday.
“I am calling on all of you. Let us help President Duterte finish his term. Let us not let the drug lords, who have allied themselves with the yellows, rule,” another Duterte supporter said more colorfully (if a pun might be pardoned.) “Yellows” is a term for the opposition during the long period of martial law imposed by Ferdinand Marcos.