FOR two days, President Duterte issued statements that were just “weird,” as one legislator put it, for any president to make.
One, last Monday, before business executives, was an admission about killing: “... I used to do it personally, just to show to the policemen that if I can do it, why can’t you?... I go around in Davao in a big bike and I would just patrol the streets and looking for an encounter to kill.”
Two, last Tuesday, in a talk with the press, was about mortality, being old and the pain he suffers from illness: “... I am old, this is my last hurrah, after this (his term ends 2022 and he’ll be 77), I’m not sure if I’ll be around by (then).”
On killings: while he said variations of his role, his latest statement is most explicit so far, without however giving details. He went around in Davao to look for trouble that would lead to someone else’s death.
Just the usual hyperbole, his justice secretary says. Maybe but that may lend credence to the allegation in a Senate inquiry about his actual part in the death of drug suspects. The DOJ chief, however, says mere talk is no crime.
On mortality: while he dares his enemies to “oust me, assassinate me,” it could be just his illnesses that might do him in: a migraine and the pain it causes which, he said, prompts him to press his hand to the right side of his face. His admitted health problems: Buerger’s disease and“issues” with his spine.
His communicators, though, insist Duterte is stronger than a carabao.
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‘Too late’ the knowledge?
President Duterte said he found it too late that he did not “need” the presidency at his age (71).
But he must have a lot of inkling of that as he had kept rejecting suggestions for him to run. Or was it propaganda that turned out to be true?
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How P30M cash looked
The public saw how P30 million cash looked as the bribe money for the release of 600 illegal aliens in Clark, Pampanga was turned over to DOJ officials. Oddities: 1. Those who surrendered it were BI commissioners themselves. 2. P20 million was missing -- plus a P1,000 bill from the turned over cash.
[bzzzzz@sunstar.com.ph or paseares@gmail.com]