It is quite painful to listen to reports and the testimonies in the congressional inquiries and police investigations about the abuses and other shenanigans of the Dutertes and their cohorts, from massive corruption to drug-related killings to the sexual abuse of children.
As these allegations are coming out, the response we hear from the Duterte camp is that they’re being targeted for political harassment and black propaganda, citing high approval ratings in opinion surveys and the approaching midterm elections.
There was the Pharmally scandal involving P8.68 billion worth of contracts at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic awarded to the pharmaceutical company traced to Chinese businessman Michael Yang, once an economic adviser of then-president Rodrigo Duterte.
The contracts for overpriced medical supplies it supplied to the government were signed by another Duterte appointee, Lloyd Christopher Lao, officer in charge at the Department of Budget and Management Procurement Service.
As this was happening, Duterte issued warnings to businesses against profiteering and hoarding essential medical supplies and equipment in the midst of the pandemic. He even asked the National Bureau of Investigation to look into allegations that a local supplier had been overpricing COVID-19 testing kits and machines and delayed the delivery of these medical equipment to the country.
We’ve heard more than enough testimonies about how Duterte supposedly tried to eliminate the competition in illegal drug trading, particularly in Mindanao, and how police officers in his clique were placed in strategic positions to protect their associates in the drug trade.
Publicly, Duterte was issuing strong statements against the drug menace and warning against narco-politics as a justification for his bloody war on drugs that resulted in the killing of at least 12,000 suspected drug users.
The billions of pesos in intelligence and confidential funds remain unaccounted for, as well as lump sum appropriations in the annual budget that were either questioned or disallowed by the Commission on Audit.
Until now, Davao City Rep. Paulo Duterte has not explained how he spent the P51 billion allocated to his district in the last three years of his father’s presidency.
Vice President Sara Duterte has refused to respond to questions about the P650 million confidential funds appropriated to the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education in 2023, as well as the P125 million confidential funds she got in 2022 from the contingent fund under the Office of the President, and spent in the last 11 days of that year.
The separate investigations by the Senate and the House of Representatives on the Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) that proliferated during the Duterte presidency have shown illegal activities of unbelievable magnitude.
Too many harrowing criminal operations and unlawful actions that happened under the Duterte administration have been coming out; direct witnesses have been speaking out in the congressional investigations.
Witnesses coerced in the past to testify against anyone who crossed the Dutertes have mustered the courage to retract their testimonies. Look how Duterte and his enablers sent then-senator Leila De Lima to jail for nearly seven years, using convicted detainees who were promised commutation of sentences or freedom, only for them to later recant their testimonies.
Hopefully, the witnesses now coming out in the House of Representatives quad committee investigation into the intricate connection among the extrajudicial killings, illegal drug trade, operations of the POGOs and Chinese syndicates in the country are telling the truth and won’t take back their testimonies later.
Another horrible scandal in which the Dutertes are somehow dragged involves Apollo Quiboloy and his Kingdom of Jesus Christ congregation.
I had a mixed feeling of anger for the self-appointed “son of god” and “owner of the universe” and pity for the young girls who had accused him of sexual abuse. It’s also outrageous how the parents of those young girls were brainwashed into “offering” their daughters from age 10 for Quiboloy’s sexual pleasure.
Philippine National Police spokesman Col. Jean Fajardo had this to say at a media briefing on Thursday: “I myself, nu’ng narinig ko ‘yun napalunok na lang ako. Kinilabutan ako nu’ng narinig ko ‘yung mga kwento.”
She was talking about the testimonies of girls who said their parents “offered” them to Quiboloy, who allegedly sexually molested them since they were 12 to 13 years old. She said the girls told police investigators that Quiboloy had assured them that their virginity remained intact because it was “the spirit of god” they had intercourse with and warned them against telling anybody about it because the “angels of death” would come after them and their families “if they break the code of secrecy.”
“Kung ako mismo ay nangingilabot sa mga nakita ko at narinig, I don’t know kung ‘yung isang ordinaryong tao na makakarinig doon mismo sa mga nagsalita, hindi ko alam kung paano n’yo tatanggapin po ‘yun,” Fajardo said.
How can the Dutertes feign innocence at the disgusting activities of their political and personal patron? How much worse could they get?
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.
