At last a different presidential tune

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte is, by no means, just an ordinary guy even if he is wont to saying that he is no different from the rest of us. He is truly a revelation of a leader. With his thoughts being uncommon and his ways radical, the president is, for most of us, difficult to predict. Quite frankly, I began to discern how immeasurable his psyche is when, in an interview with Solita Monsod, during the campaign for the 2016 elections, he was led into telling his television audience something about the death of some 1,600 personalities in his then native Davao City. The shock that I got from his comment on seeing the dead body of a beautiful rape victim pushed the limits of my wild impression of him.

Early in his administration, President Duterte continues to keep me guessing his moves. Maybe because he is fixated on fighting the illegal drug trade, he had to decide on availing abnormal paradigms. I guessed him wrongly when he practically exonerated the policemen who killed Albuera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa, in a dawn raid while the mayor was in prison. I thought that it was an “open and shut” murder case. That the indictment was a scaled down homicide, apparently influenced by his declarations protective of the men in uniform, only showed my deficiency of understanding some rudiments of criminal law as compared to the president’s profound knowledge of the Revised Penal Code. Then, President Duterte did more. I could hardly believe that he announced to the world a kind of commitment to grant pardon to such officers should the court find them guilty.

The other day, the president went again his uncharted ways and naturally, I erroneously guessed his move. He took a route different from the Marvin Marcos-Rolando Espinosa spectacle. This took place when he spoke to the media about the killing of the 17-year-old boy Kian Lloyd de los Santos, in Calookan City. The boy-victim was arrested by policemen and later shot dead. I was prepared to hear from him declarations exculpatory of the involved police officers. That was the script he read in the case of the late Mayor Espinosa.

In the accompanying news report, however, it was revealed that the president saw some video footage of the incident. It was probably the same footage that we viewed on television. The scene that was shown involved many peace officers conducting a massive operation. A part of the footage revealed the young Kian being bodily carried by two policemen. Kian was helpless and in police custody just few minutes before he took three bullets only one of which could have resulted in his instant death.

What was uncharted in the presidential pronouncement? To me, the president sang an entirely different tune. He said that should evidence prove a rub-out, his Calookan City policemen would be thrown to jail. Well, this was predictable. Kian was murdered and it is but legal that the president should make sure that the wheels of justice roll and as the facts apparently are, the killers should be punished in accordance with the law. But, let us remember that this was not President Duterte’s position in the case of the murder of Mayor Espinosa. He threw his protective mantle over Marcos and company even before the investigation into the crime commenced.