Some netizens think. Others, like the Duterte Diehard Supporters, don’t.
A for-sale sign was put up at the Duterte house in Doña Luisa subdivision in Davao city. Rodrigo Duterte’s consort-inamorata Honeylet Avanceña went on radio (DZRH) to admit that it was she who had put up the sign.
The green-painted house with the metal gate is a DDS tourist attraction. And that exactly is the context of that house. One Filipina tourist who visited the house said it all in American twang:
“I thought that this was the house of a millionaire, with all the flashy bling-blings. It wasn’t. President Duterte is really a simple and humble man.” She was wearing heavy golden baubles that could have belonged to a Christmas tree.
The house on Doña Luisa subdivision is Duterte’s main ticket to make-believe. This isn’t the house of one who owns several bank accounts with peso and dollar deposits amounting to the multi-millions as Antonio Trillanes showed us from bank records. This isn’t the house of one who enjoyed the perks of colossal confidential funds while he was Davao city mayor and Philippine president. This isn’t the house of one who stole money from government.
Kitty Duterte summarized it well: “If we had millions in the bank, we would have lived in a mansion.”
Dear Kitty: we would not have known which mansion that is. Your father never made public his Statement of Assets, Net Worth and Liabilities. We know, however, that he owns several properties. He himself said so.
Remember this? “Apollo Quiboloy gave me three properties in the posh Woodridge Village in Barangay Ma-a as well as another property in Royal Pines subdivision.” Count that out little girl, that’s four undeclared properties.
Misdeclaration, underdeclaration and non-declaration of all sorts of assets in the SALN have prescribed penalties in RA 6713 (Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees), the harshest of which is dismissal from government service. If your father never made public his SALN, it only means he was hiding something, and living on hidden wealth is not far from impossible. If he is hiding his personal assets, then your father, dear Kitty, is a thief.
In fact, our association of the house is far from rosy. The confessed former Davao Death Squad assassin and team leader Arturo Lascañas, known for his 186-page affidavit submitted to the International Criminal Court, relates one gory incident that took place in the house.
Lascañas had related to me that Duterte called him for a meeting at his Doña Luisa house to plan for the assassination of Leila de Lima, then the chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights.
“He came out from his room. His room was almost filled with imported wines. And he knew that I was taking wine. So he told me, ‘Arturo, enter my room and take one whiskey.’ When I went back, he was only with a towel, I saw his back with a dragon tattoo.”
This account is not included in Lascañas’ ICC affidavit. In November 2023, I personally met Lascañas in his country of exile somewhere in the world’s southern hemisphere (not Sub-Saharan Africa). For three days, he narrated many details to me beyond what he had written in his ICC affidavit.
May I state for the record – my copy of the signed Lascañas Affidavit was a gift from him, in printed and manuscript forms, which he both submitted to the ICC. On my last day of interviews with him, Lascañas gave me both as his parting gift to me.
At any rate, the plan for the De Lima assassination took place in the Duterte house. “The plan was to assassinate her in Bajada, outside the Davao Insular Hotel. But it did not materialize because the assassin’s view was covered by many trees.” I asked him again: did the planning take place inside the Duterte house? “Yes! In fact, Mayor Duterte cooked sausages for us for our snacks.”
The other association we have with the Duterte house was from Royina Garma. The gist of Garma’s narrative to the House Quadcomm was as follows:
“In May 2016, before he assumed office as president, Duterte called me at 5 in the morning, instructing me to meet him at his residence in Doña Luisa, Davao city. We had a meeting and he instructed me to find a Philippine National Police officer or an Iglesia ni Cristo operative capable of implementing on a national scale the war on drugs that had been executed in Davao city.”
The bloody war on drugs was hatched in that “humble home” of Duterte in Davao city.
After Avanceña had put up that for-sale sign, I had asked readers to suggest what to do with the house. The varied proposals from thinking people were interesting:
- Since the house was where killings were hatched, turn it into a funeraria.
- I suggest a crematorium.
- Burn the house.
- Demolish it then build a public toilet to remind people how filthy the previous owners were.
- A morgue will do.
- Turn it into a POGO scam hub of wake and bake Kitty.
- Ask the National Commission for Culture and the Arts to mark it a heritage house where an infamous mass murderer used to reside.
- Donate it to the National Historical Commission of the Philippines.
- Just demolish the house.
- Let the Philippine Senate buy this property and convert it as its Davao Session Hall.
- Put up another 7-11 branch of the Dutertes.
- An urban farm – reclaim it with actual vegetables; rumor has it that the soil is already rich with fertilizers from years of BS.
- Let the city LGU buy it and turn it into a slaughterhouse.
- Turn it into a zoo.
- May this monument of corruption be a reminder of the gullibility and idiocy of the DDS hordes.
- In Argentina, this would become a space for memory and human rights.
- Sell it to Duterte’s oligarchic friends.
- “Punitive Home Demolition” was imposed on the house of Yahya Ayyash, the bombmaker who killed and injured more than a hundred Israelis in a series of bombings inside Israel. After he was eliminated by Shin Bet, his house was blown in a ceremony witnessed by spectators.
- Turn in into a Davao Drama Studio . . . Bahay ni Kuya.
- Meat slaughterhouse.
- Make it a museum showcasing the “Nanlaban” guns used in the murders. Showcase photos of the Davao crime syndicate with Michael Yang by the front door and wax impressions of Digong, Inday, Polong and Baste from Madame Tussaud’s.
- Sell it to Cynthia Villar.
- Turn it into a dog kennel since the previous owner was a China dog.
Readers are free to add.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
