Duterte red-tags late mother in yet another invective-laced rant

Even his late mother is not spared from President Rodrigo Duterte’s red-tagging and invective-filled rants.

In his late-night address Monday, December 7, Duterte revealed the late Mrs. Soledad Roa Duterte regularly met with alleged Communists who have plotted for the downfall of a sitting president.

“Ang hindi ko alam, ‘yung nanay ko, may pagka-aktibista…Every weekend makita ko sila sa bahay, doon sa terrace. May mga madre, ganoon. Nagmi-meeting. Akala ko, nagdadasal ang mga y***.  Iyon pala p***** i**!” Duterte said.

(What I did not know, my mother was herself a bit of an activist. Every weekend, she met with them at our terrace. There were nuns and others. They had meetings. I thought the devils were praying. But, son-of-a-bitch!)

Duterte said that her mother “was really passionate about good government.”

The late Soledad was active in anti-tyranny struggles in Southern Mindanao even if her late husband Vicente Duterte was Davao Province governor and said to be allied with then president Ferdinand Marcos.

Popularly called Nanay Soling, the President’s mother led the Yellow Friday Movement, a regional group credited for having helped oust the dictator in 1986.

Soledad is immortalized as a hero at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani for her role in restoring democracy in the country.

Among those President Duterte identified as Soledad’s comrades were Fr. Orlando Tizon, a Roman Catholic priest who reportedly joined the underground Communist movement.

Tizon died four years ago.

Duterte also named his former Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. as among those who regularly met with his mother’s group.

Like Tizon, Evasco is a Roman Catholic priest who joined the Communist underground and the New People’s Army.

Both were political detainees in Davao.

In his latest Monday night address, Duterte intensified his verbal attacks against those he accuses of being Communists, including the two priests and those he described as his former friends.

“I am identifying you because I have seen the records. You are really Communists…So I have to destroy you,” Duterte said.

Duterte also said there will no longer be ceasefires between his government and the New People’s Army even during the Christmas and New Year season.

Duterte also said there is no chance that the stalled peace negotiations between his administration and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines would be revived in the remaining two years that he is President. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)