It was the sign that Rodrigo Duterte had succeeded in outmatching (naisahan) the senators when he came to the Senate and brought it down to his level of gutter talk and bullying:
Jinggoy Estrada: Mr. President, kanina pa ho kayo tingin ng tingin sa amin, hindi kayo laging tumitingin sa kanan. Hindi ho kayo tumitingin sa kaliwa. Nagpapansinan ho ba kayo ni Senator De Lima?
Rodrigo Duterte: Walang maganda dyan, dito lang.
(Laughter from the senate gallery)
Estrada: Aray! (laughter)
Risa Hontiveros: Mr. Chair?
Estrada: To be serious . . .
Hontiveros: Yes Mr. Chair, I beg the Senate president pro tempore to set us the tone that this is not a laughing matter.
Koko Pimentel: I think Senator Jinggoy . . .
Duterte: I was not joking.
Body-shaming became Estrada’s and Duterte’s give-and-take, and all of that recorded in the transcript for future generations to study on. The Latin term pro tempore (“for the time being,” often mispronounced as “pro tempowr” instead of “pro tem-po-reh”) is a lofty Senate position. It is the president pro tempore who presides over the Senate in the absence of the Senate president. In effect, it is the vice presidency of the Senate.
That day, no lofty positions existed, just swindlers (balasubas) like the main resource person. No senator ever gave dignity to the s=Senate that day of Oct. 28. Their opening speeches already set the tone for Duterte to have them by their necks.
Bato dela Rosa was in the hearing as senator-interpellator, resource person, and suspect. And so was Bong Go. In other words, they were there as witness and jury. It was a huge gaping wound of ethics. What should have been the correct procedure? They should have been inhibited. Both their opening statements were statements of self-defense. Go’s, the longest, sounded like a presentation of the Duterte list of achievements in six years.
Estrada’s set the tone for capitulation to Duterte, referring to the drug war as “a policy that genuinely benefits the Filipino people.”
Risa Hontiveros was the only senator in that hearing accountable to the people’s money that subsidizes public office. She does not bootlick. She came well researched (32 died in a day during Bulacan’s “one time big time,” lest we forget that, and all justified as “nanlaban”). She asked the most unsettling questions to Duterte in the name of truth. In her opening statement, she presented the salient points of almost the entire chronological panorama of the Duterte drug war killings.
And then the unthinkable happened. She was the only one who successfully cornered Duterte to admission said under oath. The only woman senator in that hearing outclassed all the scared Duterte minions among her colleagues. Note: Cynthia Villar was virtually present, but gave an indirect defense of Duterte as having supported and inaugurated the drug rehabilitation center she had put up in Las Piñas.
“Sen. Hontiveros: Alam na alam ko po na matatalino ang mga taga-Philippine Military Academy. Hindi po iyan ang issue. Ang kina-clarify ko po ay, kanina, sinabi ninyo na in-encourage ninyo ang PNP na i-encourage iyong suspect na lumaban para mapatay.
Mr. Duterte:Yes.
Sen. Hontiveros: Para masabing nanlaban.
Mr. Duterte: Yes. Correct. Para ma-minimize—
Sen. Hontiveros: Correct? It was very incorrect.
Mr. Duterte: Correct, yes.
Sen. Hontiveros: Very incorrect po …
Mr. Duterte. Yes.
Sen. Hontiveros. … if I may say as a civilian, sa professional police. Salamat kaayo, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Duterte: It depends on—ano na natin iyan, ma’am. That is your view, that—
Sen. Hontiveros: It is not my view only, Mr. Chair.”
The day after, Senate President Chiz Escudero announced the transcripts of the hearing will be made available to the public via the senate website. Public institutions can request for certified copies, “whichever party is interested and for the general public to peruse.” House of Representatives Quad Committee, take note.
The aforementioned admission of Duterte is from page 202 of the Certified Transcript of Stenographic Notes of the Senate Subcommittee hearing.
Escudero had counted 21 put__g i_a uttered by Duterte. “Hontiveros had the right to demand Duterte not to cuss at senate hearing.”
The transcripts were then promptly transmitted to the International Criminal Court for Rodrigo Duterte’s certainty of conviction.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
