Conclusion

To many listeners, Duterte’s SONA was a good comic relief. For every Duterte dig, laughter and applause even from those who were the objects of his ridicule: Catholic priests and religious representatives from other sects, congressmen and senators, members of the bureaucracy, business executives, the elite. All, albeit out of fear or hypocritical deference, responded lustily, indicating an extremely rueful numbing of public senses to the true danger to national being of the Duterte brand of justice. Imagine former Manila archbishop Guadencio Cardinal Rosales expressing satisfaction, “on the right track,” he says, over the way Duterte has been running the government. Is this not acquiescing to the spate of murders Duterte has been committing? Has the cardinal been among the multitudes intimidated by the Duterte terror? “Wag kang umasa dyan sa mga pari at pati human rights. Hindi nakakapigil yan sa kamatayan (Don’t rely on priests and also on human rights. They can’t save you from death)”. According to police reports, the number of people killed in drug-related incidents has gone at the rate of 10 daily, so that counting from day one of Duterte’s rule, victims of extrajudicial killings may now be in the thousands.

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