‘Oligarchs get no concessions’
DUTERTE ELEVATES ATTACKS When you want to remove oligarchy as a power structure, then you should rise above all of these
President Rodrigo Duterte vows no concession will be given to any oligarch in the last two years of his rule as he makes it his “battlecry” to destroy the controlling families in business and politics.
The scrapping of ABS-CBN’s franchise last week by the House of Representatives was just the start of the promise he had made soon after he won the presidency, the Chief Executive said.
Speaking to soldiers in Jolo, Sulu on Monday, the President also took
pride that he
had sent the Ayala family and industrialist Manny V. Pangilinan — whom he called the “bedrock of oligarchy” — on their knees.
“The truth is, I am extremely proud of myself. And I do not want to share that with anybody. I do not want anybody saying, whispering ‘I’m proud of you,’” Mr. Duterte said.
“I want to take pride just by myself, that I dismantled the bedrock, the main pillar of oligarchy in the Philippines. I really beat them hard,” he added.
This was part of the President’s full speech which ran for 45 minutes. Only portions of the speech were televised but reporters were able to secure copies of the unedited and unaired version.
“They received curses they thought they’ll never get. All of them — Ayala, Lopez — wrote an apology. I was the one who cursed at them, yet they were the ones apologizing,” he added.
“This time, by the next two years, I will not give any concession at all. However legal the application is. If you’re an oligarch, I’ll tell you, ‘I don’t want a fight with you. Son of a bitch, if you force me I will beat you up,’” he further stated.
The President also escalated his attack on the Lopez family, owners of ABS-CBN.
“ABS-CBN, they made me a fool. But I said, if I win, I will destroy the oligarchy of the Philippines. I did it,” he said.
Duterte accused the network of avoiding taxes by putting up holding companies based in the Cayman Islands and Hungary.
He also claimed that ABS-CBN’s equipment were tax-free and that its land title for its compound on Mother Ignacia Avenue in Quezon City did not indicate the correct land area.
There is now a move in the House that aims to probe the ABS-CBN properties.
‘Neutral’
In the same speech, President Duterte told the troops in Mindanao that he had nothing to do with the shutdown of ABS-CBN, as allegedly claimed by a certain “white” official of a human rights group in the region, despite his past threats to reject the network’s franchise.
“He said, I was the one who closed ABS-CBN. Son of a bitch, how do I know? It’s Congress that shuttered it. That dumb is an asshole. White people are like that,” he said.
Sought for comment, Roque also stood by his earlier pronouncement that President Duterte was not referring to the Lopez family, which owns ABS-CBN Corp., when the latter touted that he had toppled oligarchy.
ABS-CBN, they made me a fool. But I said, if I win, I will destroy the oligarchy of the Philippines. I did it.
The Palace official also insisted that the Chief Executive had been “neutral” in the network’s franchise bid which was denied by a House panel.
“Of course, he’s neutral because the Lopezes are still up and about,” he said in an interview with ANC.
“Insofar as he has actually gone against the oligarchs referring to the water concessionaires and Lucio Tan, I stand by that. I am not spinning. I am repeating what the President has said and he takes pride in he was able to somehow promote public interest,” he added.
Roque said that Lopezes continue to be “major players” in business and remain active in other ventures such as Rockwell Land Corp. and First Gen Corp.
Enabler
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, meanwhile, stressed on Wednesday that the country’s political structure should be reviewed to successfully eliminate oligarchy in the Philippines.
In an online forum, Drilon mentioned that the government should amend laws and policies that allow it to thrive.
He claimed willing to sit down with the administration to identify laws and policies that should be amended or crafted to eradicate or “at least minimize” oligarchy.
ABS-CBN, they made me a fool. But I said, if I win, I will destroy the oligarchy of the Philippines. I did it.
“The policy to remove or to not allow oligarchy in the country is a policy that we support. Indeed, we should not have oligarchs because it is not good. But the question is, we must review the whole structure because the structure may in fact make oligarchy easy to achieve,” he said.
“I am willing to sit down with the Duterte administration to examine the laws that we have and find out which laws should be amended. Or which laws to be enacted in order that we can remove and dismantle the structure that makes oligarchy possible,” he added.
Drilon, a former justice secretary, also warned that the government’s move to eradicate oligarchs in the system should not allow the rise of cronies.
The minority chief mentioned the enactment of Anti-Dynasty Law as one of the policies that can eradicate or minimize oligarchy in the country.
“One example is the anti-dynasty concept. As I have said, it is when a small group of people who possess sufficient political power to influence government policies, that is when you have oligarchy and that should be dismantled. The lack of an anti-dynasty provision in our system would allow oligarchy to continue,” he explained.
“With the popularity rating of the president, he has the capacity to push that in Congress. He has proven his method. When you want to remove oligarchy as a power structure, then you should rise above all of these,” Drilon, an author of one of the Anti-Dynasty Bills in the Senate, said.
“They have made our national and local offices extensions of their household. They wield power for their own benefit. It has gone so bad that these dynasties now hold simultaneous national and local positions,” he said in a separate statement.
The minority chief also mentioned the need to check the political system in the country to prevent the rule of oligarchs.