MANILA, Philippines (First published on Feb. 9, 2018) — President Rodrigo Duterte admitted on Wednesday that he was a dictator. But in December last year, he shunned insinuations that he was to become the next strongman of the country.
For Duterte’s allies, this is simply the president’s style and nothing more, but for his critics, this proved what he had been showing during his more than a year in office.
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said that being a dictator was just Duterte’s style, adding that being strict was needed in order for something to happen to the country.
“It’s just his style, and he can and should be a ‘dictator’ within his branch, the executive branch. In fact, he should be super strict for something to happen,” he said in Filipino in a text message to Philstar.com.
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Rep. Rodel Batocabe (Ako Bicol Party-list) said that Duterte was indeed a dictator if it meant having the political will and the guts to do what he thought was right for the benefit of “the silent majority” despite opposition from a noisy few.
"If being a dictator means going against traditions and fighting well-entrenched establishments and exposing them for what they are, he is a dictator," he said.
Jericho Nograles (PBA Party-list) also defended the presidential remark and said that Duterte was democratically elected despite being honest about how he would run the country if voted to office.
“So what’s the issue? The guy is just being true to form,” he said.
Then candidate Duterte warned that fish in Manila Bay would get fat by feeding on the bodies of dead criminals. He also said that his administration would be bloody as he purged the nation of drug suspects and users.
Duterte’s dictator remark was delivered before 200 former New People’s Army rebels who surrendered to the government.
“Yes, it is true. I am a dictator. I have to be a dictator for the good of the country,” the president told the former Maoist rebels.
Boasting about his 2016 election’s 16 million votes, which were below a majority of ballots cast, Duterte claimed that his style was acceptable to a majority of Filipinos.
He stressed that his iron-fist style was needed in the fight against illegal drugs and corruption and warned that chaos would reign of he would be soft on criminals.
His admission came just less than two months when he rejected insinuations that he would become the next dictator of the Philippines.
During his speech at the commissioning of the Navy’s BRP Lapu-Lapu and BRP Francisco Dagohoy at Sasa Wharf in Davao, the president said that the police and the military would not allow an “SOB” to violate the Constitution.
“My soldiers, police, would you allow a son of a b**** to be a dictator?” he said, speaking again in trademark first grammatical person.
He also said in speech that he was not interest in staying beyond his term, and as a lawyer he said he knew that security forces would not countenance another authoritarian regime in the country.
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