I have a question to those who think that there was nothing wrong in President Duterte kissing Bea Kim, a Filipina married to a Korean during his meeting with the Filipino community in South Korea in Seoul last Sunday: Is it still okay with you if Duterte would do the same to your wife or daughter?
Last Sunday, former Solicitor General Florin T. Hilbay tweeted, “12 July 2016 was an interesting day. I, with Justices Carpio & Jardeleza, went to Malacanang to explain to the President the decision in Phils. v. China. I received the decision by email from the tribunal. The President that we briefed was Rodrigo Duterte and his full cabinet.”
President Duterte takes pride in his being smart in matters of geopolitics. After all, as he more than once told his captive audience, he is a graduate of Foreign Service at the Lyceum University.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque announced last week that President Duterte’s State of the Nation address on July 23 will follow a new format where he will be talking to the people on matters close to his heart.
China builds a monument on Kagitingan Reef that the Philippines claims as part of its territory in South China Sea and President Duterte announces he will sail to Benham Rise, an underwater plateau east of Luzon that has been declared part of the country’s extended continental shelf, to show the world that he is willing to die for a land mass that is not even part of Philippine territory.
President Duterte’s incessant rants against Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda of the International Criminal Court betray how deeply the communication submitted by lawyer Jude Sabio, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Rep. Gary Alejano (Magdalo Partylist) has stung him.
I watched again the speech of Emma Gonzalez and my mind is filled with scenes close to home. I think of the survivors of President Duterte’s brutal anti-drug war.
If Pres. Duterte thinks he is now out of the reach of the International Criminal Court because he directed the Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to withdraw the ratification of the Philippines of the Rome Statute which established the ICC, he is mistaken.
At the start of his administration, President Duterte said there were three million drug addicts in the Philippines which was the reason why he launched a brutal campaign against illegal drugs which has now claimed over 4,000 as of March 2017 per data from the Philippine National Police.
In the Philippines, where women have long proven their worth, they are still subjected to a lot of disrespect. And this is from no less than the President himself.
