Duterte: 'Killings? I’ve killed many. I'm just beginning'

MANILA, Philippines — As a video critical of the administration is going viral, President Duterte disputed the claims of his critics that he has brought the country to the proverbial kangkungan, or water spinach patch.

“Sabi niyo bastos ako, eh ‘di bastos. So ano? ‘Eh p*****. Duterte napili natin hindi statesman, hoodlum.’ Why? Hoodlum? Bastos, bastos ako. (You said I am rude, I am. So what? ‘We’ve chosen Duterte; he’s not a statesman, hoodlum).’ I could not have survived since 1988 to the presidency if I am a hoodlum,” Duterte said.

“Patay? Ah marami akong pinatay. Marami pa. Ngayon mag-umpisa ako. (Killing? I’ve killed many. More. I am just beginning),” he added.

Without directly referring to acclaimed director Mike de Leon’s short film Kangkungan, the President came out swinging against the opposition during the general assembly of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines at The Manila Hotel last Tuesday.

Kangkungan highlighted Duterte’s drug war, attacks on the media and support for the Marcos family.

The five-minute video was uploaded on Vimeo on Feb. 24 and captioned: “Rodrigo Roa Duterte A Portrait of the Dictator as Filipino (with apologies to Nick Joaquin).”

“Under the guise of drug war, he unleashed a reign of terror in the country,” the video said.

During Duterte’s administration, the video also said, “thousands have been killed, he jailed his opponents, pardoned a plunderer and returned her to power (showing a photo of Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo), jailed a senator and forced the ouster of the chief justice of the Supreme Court.”

The video went on with the “attempt to arrest another senator critical of his regime and even threw an elderly missionary nun out of the country.”

Kangkungan included Duterte’s “attacks on the media,” his ridicule of “human rights as obsolete” and “belittled freedom of religion and excoriated the Catholic Church.”

“He declared martial law in Mindanao, a prelude to a nationwide repeat of Marcos’ infamous regime. And he has committed the most heinous crime of all, against a nation that has forgotten its past, by supporting the return to power of the sociopathic Marcos family,” the video continued.

It also noted Duterte’s determination to “foist upon (the electorate) his chosen candidates… whose qualifications are dubious at best” and how the country is “slowly but surely losing sovereignty (in the West Philippines Sea).”

“This man is killing this country. Tinatapon ng taong ito ang ating Pilipinas sa kangkungan. (He is throwing the Philippines into the swampy fields).”

The film concludes by urging the public to vote wisely in the coming elections.

“Countrymen and especially our nation’s youth, this coming May, vote as if your future depended on it, as if your life depended on it,” it said. – Charmie Joy Pagulong