“Traitor: one who betrays another’s trust or is false to an obligation or duty.” Webster’s definition captures exactly what most of our government officials appear to be, in their words and deeds.
Social media, in fact, points to former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte as the quintessential example of a traitor. Instead of faithfully complying with his oath to implement the Philippine Constitution and Laws, he told the Filipino people that “the Constitution is just a piece of paper.” Moreover, despite the Constitution clearly mentioning that “we…(implore) the aid of Almighty God, in order to build a just and humane society…,” he dared to publicly declare that “God is stupid.”
What’s worse, as a consequence, is that the majority of our dynastic public officials have been encouraged to follow the lead of the former president. They have been keeping silent, among other critical issues painfully impacting on the millions of poor Filipinos, about Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s having forged a “Gentlemen’s Agreement” with China’s Pres. Xi Jin Ping in connection with our sovereign rights over the West Philippine Sea. This traitorous agreement has resulted until today in China’s bullying with aggressive attacks on our Philippine Coast Guard and our fishermen.
It should be noted that for the six years that former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte was head-of-state, his “War on Drugs” resulted in 30,000 EJKs, among other victims of red-tagging by the NTF-ELCAC. And his fellow dynastic public officials, along with the Marcoses, her daughter Sara then as Davao Mayor, the Cayetanos, Villars, Estradas, (not to mention the direct participation of then Police Chief Bato de la Rosa and then close colleague Bong Go), et al, kept silent. In effect, many Filipinos with their eyes on good governance, think that these government officials failed to be true to their mandate as holding a position of public trust. They surmise that their deafening silence as public officials can only be interpreted as complicit with the former Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s anti-people government policies. It should be noted, no less, that former public officials – Justice Antonio Carpio and Sen. Antonio Trillanes III have commented practically saying that the former president committed treason as a public official.
The Filipino people are wondering, indeed, if they have today competent, compassionate, pro-human rights, pro-social justice, and pro-Filipino honest servant-leaders; and that is, instead of traitors.
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