Former President Rodrigo Duterte is in The Hague in The Netherlands, incarcerated in a hotel-like facility for crimes against humanity. That facility was shown to reporters before Digong was placed there. It is a good facility but a prison nevertheless. You are deprived of your freedom there and you live almost alone except for the people guarding the facility.
Sending Duterte to The Hague was, perhaps, the wisest decision President Bongbong Marcos made. While the so-called diehard Duterte supporters or DDS are still a force to reckon with in Philippine politics, that force has weakened considerably with the breakup of the Uniteam formerly led by Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte, Digong’s daughter. I could just imagine the life that the former president is leading, especially now that he has gotten old.
Had he been in the Philippines, the DDS forces could very well unite around him. Impeaching Sara, which the group aligned with BBM is finally doing now, would have been difficult.
But back to Digong. I could just imagine what his life is like now. I don’t know how much the authorities there allow, but he is virtually alone there. Sara is in the Philippines and could not care much for him. And in cases like this, being visited by a close relative helps.
I too endured incarceration in my younger years. But the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center was far too different from the one Duterte is in. I remember being detained in Brigada 9, a cell that had more than 50 inmates. I befriended some of them, but the other inmates and I still longed for visits from outsiders. Visiting days were the most anticipated days of the week.
It was there that I learned the term “buryong.” One suffers it if one is not visited for several visiting days. I remember seeing a fellow inmate who apparently suffered from depression. I asked an inmate-friend about it. His answer: “naburyong na.”
I don’t think Digong is a loner. But it looks like circumstances have pushed him to be alone most of the time. This means that he has all the time in the world to think about the past. If only for that, I do pity him. But the idea of him returning to the Philippines is farfetched because of the political implications. The balancing act is difficult, especially for the President.
But being alone for most of the time is difficult too, especially if one is in a country that is very far from home. Only overseas Filipino workers who are in Europe can visit him for now. And they would not dare do that because that might jeopardize the employment they have sacrificed almost everything to get. His relatives in Davao could not do that without money.
But I am sure Digong is past the adjustment period. Our minds and our physical make-up do have ways to adjust to our surroundings. After months of incarceration, he must have already adjusted to the life that he is in. And the DDS, too, seem to have already understood this setup.
What will happen in the future, only God knows. And by now, I hope he has reconciled himself with God.