IT is easy to feel sympathy for former president Rodrigo Duterte. His family has revealed his deteriorating condition. We are told he struggles to walk, that he has lost a significant amount of weight and that his health is in visible decline. Reports portray him as a frail elder statesman, weathered and worn.
The image being crafted is one of vulnerability and impending mortality.And yet, every time I find myself even momentarily tempted to pity the man, I am confronted by a single photograph. The image, captured by photojournalist Raffy Lerma for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, shows a woman, Jennilyn Olaires, cradling the lifeless body of her partner Michael Siaron.
It was calculated to desensitize the public, to create enemies out of the poor and to manufacture consent for lethal force. He goaded the police to shoot them dead and boasted of throwing drug suspects from helicopters. He blurred the lines between crime and governance, between punishment and vengeance.Now, in his twilight years, Duterte seeks refuge in legal protections he once scoffed at.
Not Duterte But Those Who Died Without Due Process
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