Both fans and foes of Duterte rally in the Philippines
THOUSANDS of supporters and foes of President Rodrigo Duterte joined large rallies in Manila on Saturday, highlighting how his brutal drug war has polarised the Philippines.
A prayer rally for Duterte’s eightmonth-long anti-narcotics crackdown drew the biggest turnout, estimated by police at up to 200,000 although AFP reporters said it looked a lot less.
“Your presence here showcases the strong support that your president continues to enjoy,” Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre told the crowd at the prayer rally, who lit candles and sang songs.
The 71-year-old president, who spent the weekend in his southern home city of Davao, won the election last year after promising during the campaign to eradicate drugs in society by killing tens of thousands of people.
He launched the crackdown after tak- ing office in June and police have reported killing 2,555 drug suspects since then, with about 4,000 other people murdered in unexplained circumstances.
Duterte critics including ex-leader Benigno Aquino and Vice President Leni Robredo, who was elected separately from the president, joined one of the other rallies held near the national police headquarters in Manila.
This gathering marked the 31st anniversary of the victory of a pro-democracy movement that culminated in a bloodless “People Power” revolution that ended the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship.
Some at this rally criticised the drug killings, many of which have been described by international foreign monitors as state-sanctioned murder.
The protesters warned they foreshadowed another dictatorship. By nightfall, some sections of the protesters were openly calling for Duterte’s removal from office, chanting “Down with Duterte”.
“We are warning our people about the threat of rising fascism,” protest leader Bonifacio Ilagan, a playwright who was tortured in a police prison under Marcos’ martial rule, said after leading more than 1,000 protesters at another rally earlier on Saturday.
Senator arrested
Wearing a black shirt, Aquino marched alongside political allies and around 2,000 other protesters.
He denounced the government’s treatment of Senator Leila de Lima, the top critic of the Duterte drug war, who was arrested on Friday and faces life in prison if convicted of drugs charges.
In a separate demonstration Saturday, around 150 anti-Marcos protesters chanting “Exhume him” marched on the cemetery where he is buried, but riot police stopped them near the gate, an AFP photographer saw.