DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Vice President Sara Duterte’s recent remarks comparing the possible scenario that his father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, may suffer the same fate of the late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr. drew criticisms over her lack of grasp in the country’s history.
The vice president was speaking to supporters at an event in The Hague, Netherlands on Sunday, March 23, where she shared her conversation with her father who is now detained in the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Scheveningen, Netherlands.
“(G)usto niyang umuwi. Sinabi ko din sa kanya yon, ‘Pa, sabi ko ‘yung kagustuhan mo na umuwi, iyan din ‘yung katapusan ng buhay mo, magiging Ninoy Aquino Jr. ka (He really wants to come home. Then I told him, ‘Pa, if you go home, that will be the end of your life. You’ll be like Ninoy Aquino Jr.),” she said
The statement triggered reactions from netizens and political critics of the Dutertes.
The vice president and her supporters later clarified that what her statement meant was that Duterte may end up being murdered like Aquino Jr. if he was granted release from detention.
Aquino, Jr. was an opposition leader during the Martial Law years under President Marcos Sr. He was gunned down on August 21, 1983 at the Manila Airport after spending years in exile in the United States recovering from heart surgery. His death sparked nationwide protests that forced a snap election, which ended with Marcos Sr. and his family escaping to Hawaii due to widespread cheating.
The Ninoy and Cory Aquino Foundation released a response on social media on Monday, March 24, that said: “Kung pag-aaralan natin ang kasaysayan, makikita natin na ibang iba ang ginawa kay Ninoy sa pinagdadaanan ngayon ni dating Pangulong Duterte (If we look back in history, we can see that what happened to Ninoy was different from what the former President Duterte is experiencing now).”
Duterte critics such as Human Rights Watch senior researcher Carlos Conde see this as a ploy by VP Sara to get back against former ally President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who turned from his early statements of not cooperating with the ICC on the arrest of his father.
“Sara’s camp is obviously trying to capitalize on the history of political animosity between the Aquinos and the Marcoses, hence this cynical attempt to depict her father as a potential Ninoy. The nerve lang talaga (What nerve she has),” Conde posted on his social media account.
“But what she apparently didn’t factor in is this: While the Marcos dictatorship wreaked havoc on human rights, her father’s regime did much worse,” Conde added.
Davao creative writer Jade Mark Capiñanes looks at the irony of how the Dutertes and their supporters in the past years tried to invalidate the Aquinos in support of the Marcoses’ revisionist lines.
“Imagine hating Ninoy over the past decade or so, convinced he wasn’t a hero (saya mo pa nga nung tinanggal sila ni cory sa 500, you were happy Cory [and Ninoy’s faces were] removed from the 500-peso bill), only for Inday Sara—at this critical moment—to compare Tatay Digong to him. This is what happens when your principles are completely built around the politicians you worship…You were all too happy to push the idea that ninoy wasn’t a hero, because it favored the Marcoses, who were then aligned with the Dutertes,” Capiñanes wrote.
ACT Teachers Partylist Representative and senatorial candidate France Castro said the comparison between Duterte and Aquino Jr. is “not only historically inaccurate but a grave insult to the memory of Ninoy Aquino and all victims of martial law.”
In a statement, Castro said the Dutertes should be ashamed for raising this point.
“Mahiya naman sila! (They should be ashamed!). Ninoy fought against the Marcos dictatorship that killed thousands of Filipinos, while Duterte himself has the blood of thousands on his hands through his brutal drug war.”
Malacañang Palace Press Officer Attorney Claire Castro also commented saying “Their difference is so wide. Ninoy Aquino never had a record of mass murder or crimes against humanity.” (davaotoday.com)
ninoy aquino, rodrigo duterte
