Duterte’s plan to create hit squad draws mixed reactions from senators
President Rodrigo Duterte. (INQUIRER.net file photo)
President Rodrigo Duterte’s plan to form a hit squad against rebels drew mixed reactions from senators.
READ: Duterte says he’ll form death squads vs Reds
“That cannot be done. I’m sure the pres (President Duterte) will not create one such squad,” Senator Koko Pimentel III said in a viber message to reporters on Tuesday.
Senator Grace Poe, while she said she has yet to see the context of the President’s statement, nevertheless expressed alarm over the reported plan to create such squad.
“Kailangan kong malaman kung ano ba ‘yung konteksto no’n pero nakakabahala ‘yon so siguro, minsan kasi ang Presidente nagsasabi ng mga ganyan,” Poe told reporters in an ambush interview.
(I need to know what is its context but still it is alarming, so maybe, sometimes the President says something like that.)
“Pero alam naman natin na mayroon tayong batas na sinusunod so ‘yun pa rin ang mananaig at alam naman natin na sa kahit na anong sitwasyon may proseso,” she added.
(But we still know that we have a law to follow so that should prevail, and we also know that in whatever situation there is a process.)
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, meanwhile, believes the President’s plan to create a death squad was a way to divert attention from pressing issues that are currently facing his administration.
“Duterte wants to divert the attention of the media and the public from the mysterious MOUs (memorandum of understanding) entered into with China; the questionable awarding of the telco to a Duterte crony; and the 11 [billion] peso shabu shipment issue,” he said in a statement.
READ: PH, China sign MOU on oil and gas development, 28 other deals
READ: Duterte pal is 3rd telco player
READ: PDEA chief now says magnetic lifters contained P11B ‘shabu’
Trillanes also noted that the President’s “hit squad” is aimed at instilling “fear” in the “hearts and minds” of Filipinos again “ by forewarning that there would be another round of killings.”
“He is doing this because he feels that he is losing his grip on power and that fear is his only way to keep people in check,” he added. /jpv
