ONCE AGAIN, the foul-mouthed misogynist who is the leader of our nation turns to personal insults when he will not or, most likely, cannot offer a credible explanation to his badly concocted and fictitious accusations against critics.
Asked by reporters in Davao City to explain the so-called “matrix” purporting to show a plot to oust him, which his spokesman Salvador Panelo at first attributed to him only to later claim it came from an unknown source, President Rodrigo Duterte insisted it was “authentic” as “Bikoy,” the erstwhile hooded character who appeared in a series of videos accusing the chief executive and members of his family of involvement in the drug trade and was later claimed by Peter Joemel Advincula.
He then vented his ire on veteran journalist Ellen Tordesillas of Vera Files, one of those implicated in the matrix, who he called “every inch a prostitute.”
And while he did not name them, Duterte was apparently referring to other journalists included in the document when he referred to “professional twisters” who “are bayad sa (paid by the) Western …”
There is no question Duterte’s tiresome habit of spewing personal insults is intended to intimidate his targets into silence or submission.
Alas for him, his fits and tantrums speak more about his character than those he would smear.
His are the tactics of the thug who resorts to the bludgeon because he cannot reason, and even then, he fails miserably.
We know for a fact that Ellen possesses more courage than he can ever hope to have beyond his macho posturing. So, too, do the other journalists he vilifies. As do all those who comprise the community of independent Filipino journalists.
Mr. Duterte may choose to ignore the lessons of history but does so at his own peril.
But of one thing we are sure, as history has amply proven. Despots come and eventually go. The truth and freedom will always outlast them.
(NUJP statement on Duterte’s insult of Tordesillas, 14 May 2019)
