PART III: LOVE FOR MY COUNTRY AND THE FILIPINO PEOPLE
Whatever is now occupying the seat meant for our nation’s top official, it is not a leader. It is not a law abider, much less a law enforcer. It is easy to question if he even has a conscience or a moral compass, if not a soul. If anything, what is now there, calling himself a President, is a malicious and evil-spirited bully, who thinks he can make the Filipino people suffer his abuses, vulgarity and uninhibited support for criminality within the bureaucracy, not because he is assured of a mandate from our people, but because he is protected by his foreign overlords. He is a weak coward. He wages war and picks fight against those he deems incapable of protecting themselves against his attacks: women, children, the poor, the peaceful protesters and human rights defenders. Yet he cowers and folds when faced with the real enemies: foreign incursions that threaten our sovereignty and national security, and big-time criminal syndicates. He fights good and bows to evil. That’s not a strong leader. And the Filipino people deserve better. But ever so slowly, in the past two years, we have somehow descended into a relationship of cyclical abuse with Duterte. The signs are there. He isolates us from those who might help us. He deports a missionary nun, incarcerates his fiercest critic, and sanctions the killings of those who refuse to be back off. He employs threats, violence and intimidation and claims that he is doing it for our own good. He consolidates control over us. He has effective control over all branches of government now, and soon, even the Office of the Ombudsman. He controls our reality through his army of internet trolls and foreign-backed propaganda machine. When we ask for proof, he produces matrices that later turn out to be unverified and erroneous. They prove one thing: his
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