Mr. Duterte’s mouth is getting the better of him.
His incoherent and foulmouthed rant against two of the country’s major media outfits—the Philippine Daily Inquirer and ABS-CBN—was not only unwarranted, it was absolutely twisted.
With due courtesy, it was very clear that he, not the two media outfits, was the rude and vulgar one. And such conduct was a brazen abuse of his immense power as president of this land and only shows how little, if any, appreciation he has of democracy and governance. His is a mindset of a petty tyrant who mistakenly believes public office is an entitlement that allows him to flout the laws that give him power and institute such measures that prevent him from abusing that power.
No, Mr. President, we have learned enough to know that to ask you to apologize, or to come to your senses, would be an exercise in futility. But one thing we can assure you of, Sir, your curses and your threats cannot and will not prevent us, the community of independent Filipino journalists, from fulfilling our duty to inform the people, as best as we can, of what is happening to our country, whether or not you agree with what we report.
DABET PANELO, secretary general, National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, nujphil@gmail.com