A yearend look at Duterte (1st of 2 parts)

THE United Nations (UN) Human Rights Chief ZeidRa’ad Al Hussein with air of arrogance and hopeless ignorance brands the Duterte government a successful campaign against the vicious drug syndicate and criminal elements a murderous act.

It is obvious that this nincompoop based his assessment on the reports of New York Based Human Rights Watch who in turn relied from what they culled from inferred reports handed to them by the local pan-handling human rights non-government organizations in Davao.

I would sound redundant to some who had read my previous columns on this issue, but with the oft-repeated allegations of human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings hurled by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and the UNCHR against then Davao City mayor now President Rodrigo Duterte I deemed it my personal obligation to correct the distortions that are being stoked by Senator Leila De Lima, the Catholic Bishops of the Philippines, HRW-NYC and UNCHR, Loida N. Lewis, and the leader of the dying yellow cult, Vice President Leni Robredo.

Six against one does not a truth make. All these allegations stemmed from one source, De Lima who as Chairperson of CHR conducted a 4-month probe on alleged extra-judicial killings (EJK) in Davao City.

The investigation was prodded by the political nemesis of Duterte who extrapolated reports of killings in Davao City and passed a resolution in Congress to have Duterte investigated for human rights violations.

The objective was to discredit Duterte for the power grab.

Unfortunately for De Lima and the political adversaries of Duterte none of their devious attempts succeeded.

When charges are based on trumped-up issues no evidence can be extracted except if you plant it which is what CHR did during their probe in Davao.

De Lima, as Chairperson of CHR, submitted a badly deteriorated skeletal remain of a man, or maybe a woman, who must have died before world war II.

They exhumed this along with two pairs of 2009 car license plates after having dug several suspected gravesite of what she claimed were victims of EJK.

I must say I admire De Lima’s dogged determination to pin Duterte but she has this penchant of believing her prevaricated stories. With her inventiveness comes an admirable strategy which makes the Presidential Communications Office pales in comparison.

Think of this. Before she submitted her perjured witness, Edgar Matobato, in the senate witness stand, nobody from Malacanang ever had an inkling the serial killer who claimed to be a member of the Davao Death Squad, already related his murderous saga before New York Times. His delivery was almost flawless.

Davao Death Squad (DDS), according to De Lima and her witness Matobato, was a creation of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. It is a blatant lie.

The DDS was a ghost force conceptualize by INP Gen. Dionisio Tan-gatue Jr. Duterte was still studying law in San Beda when DDS was “created” by the police general to counter the Sparrows which were the vicious liquidation squads of the New People’s Army (NPA) at the time when Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)/ NPA was in control of Davao, the city included.

The UN Human Rights Head Hussein is foolish to judge and declare that President Duterte is a murderer because of the latter’s claim that he kills criminals.

There were only three occasions Duterte, as mayor, probably killed suspects: the shoot-out with kidnap-for-ransom gang to save a child victim and the raid of a shabu laboratory in Daliao, Toril.

Duterte led a composite team that assaulted the laboratory resulting in the death of four chemists who are members of a drug syndicate from Taiwan.

In all incidents, the suspects fought it out with the law enforcers. I cannot understand why the human rights activists call it murder.

I would not hasten to judge whether it was Duterte’s gun who killed the suspects. Assuming it was his, still you cannot fault him. In dealing with the devil you either kill or be killed.

The bishops, like Socrates Villegas and that priests who runs away from criminals (but not from publicity) ought to discern deeply on the role of an elected leader like Duterte.

Even the bible is replete with this. De Lima should stop sermonizing as if she is lily white. We all know now that the center of drug distribution in the country is the New Bilibid Prison which is right under her nose. She cannot escape that fact since testimonies of inmates and videos were taken of her singing and dancing with the jailbirds. These are foolproof.