Palace slams ‘desperate’ Duterte critics over satire on Netflix
Credit to Author: CATHERINE S. VALENTE, TMT| Date: Wed, 15 May 2019 03:27:03 +0000
MALACAÑANG on Wednesday expressed outrage over allegedly “desperate” moves by President Rodrigo Duterte’s critics to attack the Chief Executive anew before Monday’s midterm elections.
In a statement, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar slammed “Patriot Act” aired on Netflix where American comedian Hasan Minhaj criticized Duterte’s drug war.
“We find it desperate that, on the eve of the Philippine midterm elections, the vociferous detractors of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte would use an American comedy show, aired on Netflix, to demonize the Chief Executive and his government in its episode entitled ‘Brazil, Corruption and the Rainforest’ before the global audience,” Andanar said.
The Palace official hit Minhaj for calling Duterte an “autocrat” and for his “exaggerated” figures on the death toll in the government’s war on drugs.
“Mr. Hasan Minhaj, an American comedian and host, maliciously implied that President Duterte is an ‘autocrat’ who ‘every so often goes on a killing spree,’” Andanar said.
“He cited an exaggerated figure — 27,000, which is way higher than the official figure – to besmirch the government’s campaign against illegal drugs,” he added.
Citing data from the government’s #RealNumbersPH program, Andanar said “there are about 5,050 drug personalities who died during the 115,435 anti-drug operations from July 2016 to November 2018.”
“The Philippine National Police also reported that a large number of deaths were done by the hands of vigilantes due to the rivalry between drug gangs. There were also 164,265 individuals arrested during the same police operations,” he said.
The Palace official also said that aside from police operations, the government had rehabilitation programs.
Since Duterte assumed the presidency in 2016, he said there were about 303,533 individuals who graduated from these rehabilitation programs.
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