EDITORIAL - Still, kill, kill, kill

Killing, it seems, is never far from the minds of the Dutertes. Vice President Sara Duterte, in a live video, ranted about an alleged administration-sponsored assassination plot against her. If it succeeded, she warned, she had contracted someone to avenge her by killing President Marcos, his wife Liza and his cousin, Speaker Martin Romualdez.

The video has earned the Vice President a recommendation from the National Bureau of Investigation for criminal prosecution for grave threats and inciting to sedition.

Last Thursday night, it was the turn of the Vice President’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, to issue his own statement about killing. This time, the targets are 15 unnamed senators, whose deaths, according to Duterte, would leave vacancies in the chamber that could give his senatorial candidates a better chance of making it.

Unlike his daughter, who said the assassination plan was “no joke, no joke,” the former president made no qualifications on whether his statement at the kickoff rally for the PDP-Laban was a joke. But he was in his usual playful mood and his statement sounded like a joke, including his mention of using a bomb.

Considering his track record for lethal violence when he was president and Davao City mayor, however, there were people who were not amused, and questioned whether he was seriously considering the permanent elimination of 15 senators. Duterte, after all, also appeared to be joking when he campaigned for the presidency in 2016 on a platform of killing all drug suspects nationwide within six months of assuming power.

Even at the time, because of reports of killings attributed to death squads in Davao when he was mayor, there were those who warned that the presidential candidate was not entirely joking in his campaign promise to kill. Duterte’s six years as president saw the deaths of over 6,000 drug suspects, based on the official count of law enforcement agencies.

Are Duterte and his aides remorseful about the drug killings? Far from it. Both Duterte and his chief enforcer, now reelectionist senator Ronald dela Rosa, have said that given the chance, they would do it again. Residents of Davao City can expect more of the same in case they return Duterte to the mayor’s post. And Filipinos can do the same nationwide by sending Duterte’s candidates to the Senate.

In 2016, Filipinos voted overwhelmingly to allow Rodrigo Duterte to kill, kill, kill. The midterm elections can serve as a referendum on whether Filipinos want more of the kill culture.