On the same day from the Duterte camp: “BREAKING NEWS News Former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte granted interim release according to a reliable source.” A few moments later, Vice President Sara Duterte issued a statement claiming her father was “found unconscious on the floor of his room” in The Hague.
The “breaking news” is not true. Bloggers, many of whom have been posting pro-Duterte sentiments, circulated the wrong information through memes, Facebook reels, or YouTube short videos.
For example, a three-second YouTube shorts titled “interim release ni FPRRD granted na” and captioned, “Breaking News granted na ang interim release ni FPRRD kumakalat na balita… ibang bansa ang tatanggap sa kanya hindi Pilipinas” already had about 100,000 engagement as of 2 a.m. on Sunday, 14 hours after it was posted. Similar social media posts in various formats have been spreading as early as May.
The vice president’s four-paragraph statement appears to be part of the Dutertes’ continuing drama and persistent efforts to be in the news, days after Duterte supporters failed to hijack the Sept. 21 anti-corruption protest actions. It was also timed shortly after she protested what she called a “sham welfare check” by Philippine embassy officials on the former president.
Earlier, she warned, “The ICC and the Philippine government must be prepared to answer, fully and directly, for any harm that comes to former President Rodrigo Duterte.”
Was the “incident” when the older Duterte was supposedly “found unconscious” the kind of “harm” she had warned about?
Several weeks ago, there were reports that the former president was taken to a hospital. That was confirmed by Veronica “Kitty” Duterte after a visit to her father, saying it was just a routine checkup.
“As you all know, he is old and not exactly in the best shape. He’s okay actually. I expected him to be more frail but he’s not. He’s doing well; he’s even better as compared to the first weeks inside. He sounded more lively, more sharp.”
Indicating that nothing untoward happened to her father that time, Kitty went on to share to supporters waiting outside the detention facility: “He now has long beard, it’s color white, and he does have white colored eyebrows now but his hair, ayun maarte kasi ‘yun so meron s’yang daily, ah hindi naman siguro weekly hair dye, so ayun pa rin. Hindi na siya pure black, may pagka-blonde blonde.”
Also last Saturday, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte posted on Facebook that President Marcos Jr. had sent former senator Antonio Trillanes to The Hague for a welfare check on the former president. He didn’t name Marcos but referred to him as “bangag” (addict). He also asked if Trillanes was with former Davao Death Squad member Arturo Lascañas, one of the key witnesses against the former president involving the extrajudicial killings in Davao.
“Wag ka mag alala magkaka ganyan ka rin na selda, hintayin mo lang. Umuwi ka na sa Pinas at harapin niyo na mga kaso niyo mga duwag kasi kayong mga SUNDALONG KANIN. Sige na, balik ka na at nang maka report ka na sa mga AMO mong bangag na mga praning, sayang naman ang flood control funding na binayad sa yo (Don’t you worry you will have a similar jail, just wait. Return to the Philippines and face your cases, you cowardly useless soldiers. Go ahead, come back so you can report to your paranoid addict bosses, the flood control funding that was paid to you will be a waste),” the absentee lawmaker posted.
Trillanes has been in The Hague, where he attended the ICC-organized Tenth Seminar on Cooperation, with the theme “Effective Justice through Efficient Cooperation,” last Sept. 16 to 18.
Hours before the series of disinformation from the Duterte camp, the International Criminal Court made public through its website a notice to the Pre-Trial Chamber 1 filed by the former president’s lead counsel, Nicholas Kaufman, who claimed that the Marcos administration does not have any objection to his release from detention at The Hague, where he is awaiting trial for crimes against humanity for the deaths of thousands in his so-called war on drugs.
In the public redacted filing, Kaufman said Duterte’s legal team agreed to the chamber’s considerations “in full understanding that it will apply to any conditions for interim release.”
“This agreement is proffered by Counsel (who was formerly instructed by Mr. Duterte to do all possible to ensure his interim release) in the full understanding that it will apply to any conditions for interim release — a possibility now contemplated without objection by the Government of the Republic of the Philippines which surrendered Mr. Duterte to the International Criminal Court,” part of the notice to the court read.
It cited Palace Press Officer Claire Castro’s statement in a press briefing, where she said: “Nagbunga naman po yata ang madalas niyang pagbibiyahe. So, kung iyan ay good news po sa kanila at kung ano po ang magiging desisyon ng ICC, tatanggapin naman po iyan ng pamahalaang Marcos Jr. (Her constant travels have borne fruit. So, if this is good news for them and whatever the decision of the International Criminal Court, the government of President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. will accept it).” Castro was referring to the vice president’s frequent travels abroad.
Castro’s statement was made following the vice president’s statement while she was in Japan a few days prior that a third country has expressed readiness to host her father if the ICC grants him an interim release. She refused to say which country, but clarified that it was neither Japan nor Australia.
While in Melbourne last June, the vice president said her father’s lawyers were looking at Australia for his release to a third-party country. But Australia said it was not considering hosting the former president if granted interim release.
Early on Saturday, Castro disputed Kaufman’s claim, saying he has “mastered the art of twisting some facts.” She recalled: “He had done this action before when he asserted that the ICC prosecutor had no objection with former president Duterte’s request for interim release. However, after the ICC prosecutor filed an opposition, it was revealed to be his false allegation.”
I can think of two possible reasons behind the Duterte camp’s theatrics: the ICC will soon be deciding to reject the interim release request, or these are attempts to gain more sympathy as the investigations into the flood control scandal are now getting closer to the Dutertes.
We have seen Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon fuming mad over a fully paid P96.5-million “ghost” flood control project in Davao Occidental. Netizens have been prodding Dizon to check the P51-billion allocation to the district of Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte during the last three years of the Duterte presidency.
The vice president’s “statement on humanitarian concerns in relation to the continued detention of former president Duterte” described as “an abuse of power against a vulnerable individual” the welfare check done by Philippine Embassy officials last week.
It seems that the former president is indeed in “troubling conditions,” not because of the things his children are protesting about, but because of the special treatment accorded him, such as the frequent visits by family members, the comforts at the Scheveningen penitentiary and the legal processes on the charges against him.
Compare those with the thousands of suspected drug users killed under his brutal drug war. Yet, they have the gall to complain about unjust and inhuman conditions, which supposedly “amount to punishment without having been convicted of any crime.”
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
This column also appeared in The Manila Times.
