FRANCISCO S. TATAD
NEARLY everybody I have spoken to would like to know why President Rodrigo Duterte failed to show up at the 119th Independence Day rites at Rizal Park on Monday, after cancelling the traditional vin d’honneur for diplomats earlier. As many, if not more, would like to know why, aside from raising the Philippine flag in front of a shell-shocked building in Marawi, the military, backed by the US Special Forces, failed to make good its promise to “liberate” that city from the Islamic State (IS)-backed Mautes.