A call for just ‘destruction’

FORMER Marcos-era Trade Minister and business tycoon Roberto “Bobby” Ongpin found himself in President Rodrigo Duterte’s crosshairs last week when he was singled out as one of the oligarchs “who count their money on private planes while the poor suffer,” and whom Duterte has vowed to “destroy.”

Ongpin earned the President’s ire because of his stake in online gambling firm Philweb; Duterte earlier vowed to stop online gambling in the Philippines, and apparently intends to apply the same aggression to the issue that he has to stamping out the country’s illegal drug scourge.