Anti-Duterte groups pour in to Manila
FEAR OF AUTHORITARIAN RULE RAISED
>> MANILA: Political opponents of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday turned a traditional celebration of a “People Power” uprising against dictatorship three decades ago into a protest march condemning his war on drugs.
The small political opposition and leftwing activists held separate commemorative events at the historic highway where more than a million Filipinos gathered in 1986, forcing Ferdinand Marcos and his family to flee to Hawaii after a 20-year rule.
Supporters of Mr Duterte were due to hold a counter rally later yesterday at a big Manila park, including a vigil backing the anti-drugs crackdown. Similar actions were planned in key cities across the country and in some capitals abroad.
The opposition warned of a possible return to authoritarian rule under Mr Duterte, calling on Filipinos to stand up for truth and justice and demand a stop to the extrajudicial killings, which have claimed more than 7,700 lives in seven months.
The 71-year-old firebrand has not ruled out using martial law to prevent what he describes as the country’s slide to narco-state status.
Mr Duterte, who ranks Marcos as one of the country’s best-ever presidents, last year allowed the Marcos family to bury the former leader’s remains at Manila’s Cemetery for Heroes, leading to large street protests.
In a separate demonstration yesterday, around 150 anti-Marcos protesters chanting “Exhume him” marched on the cemetery where his body is buried, but riot police stopped them near the gate.
Earlier in the day, police hosed down at least 100 people protesting the drug killings, though no one was seriously injured, local news reports and TV footage showed.
“There is a president who is threatening to reimpose martial law and openly supports the killing of thousands of people,” staunch Duterte critic Sen Leila de Lima said in a message from her detention cell, a day after she was arrested for drug offences that she described as a vendetta.
“The grim truth: in the last seven months under Duterte, there were more deaths compared to the 14 years of martial law under the Marcos regime.”
Ms de Lima was arrested on Friday on charges of drug trafficking that she described as meant to silence her.
The former human rights commissioner said the arrest was an act of revenge for her decade-long efforts to expose Mr Duterte as the leader of death squads during his time as mayor of the southern city of Davao.
An overnight vigil to demonstrate public backing for Mr Duterte’s drug crackdown was also scheduled in Manila later yesterday, with organisers calling on a “million” supporters to turn up.
Rights groups and a US senator criticised Mr Duterte for the arrest of de lima, describing it as “politically motivated” to silence his critic.
“President Duterte is effectively expanding his drug war from the urban poor to the legislative branch of government,” Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
Thousands of left-wing activists marched on the main highway in Manila to demand “genuine change” promised by Mr Duterte, calling for the resumption of peace talks with Maoist-led rebels and release of more than 400 political prisoners.
“This is particularly dangerous today when there are real efforts to rehabilitate the Marcoses and pave the way for their eventual return to Malacanang,” Renato Reyes, Bayan secretary-general, said in a statement.
“We are taking the matter seriously. We are warning our people about the threat of rising fascism,” Bonifacio Ilagan, who led one of the protests outside the police headquarters, said.
Mr Ilagan, a playwright who suffered horrific torture over two years in a police prison under Marcos’ martial rule in the 1970s, cited the “culture of impunity” engendered by Mr Duterte’s antidrug crackdown.
Former president Fidel Ramos and former senator Juan Ponce Enrile, hailed as the heroes of the 1986 revolt against Marcos, attended a mass at the main army base in Manila to mark the anniversary, which Mr Duterte skipped.
Some cabinet members fear the protests might be used as a staging point to call for the president’s ouster.