President Rodrigo Duterte’s long-time partner, Cielito “Honeylet” Avanceña, defended him from accusations that he ordered the killings of certain people.
If her partner is indeed a killer, political rivals and critics like Senator Antonio Trillanes IV would have long been killed, she argued.
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“You’ve seen it, Trillanes has been hitting us since a week before election. Eh bakit buhay pa siya? ‘Di ba? Wala naman nangyayari eh, so it’s not true. You know that he’s not that kind of person,” Avanceña said on October 2.
Avanceña made the remarks during her speech at the launch of the Philippine National Police’s “Life After TokHang” program, which aims to give a holistic approach to the campaign against illegal drugs.
During her speech, Avanceña also noted how “forgiving” Duterte has been to his long-time critic, former Speaker Prospero Nograles.
“Nograles himself has done not very good things to him in the past, but look how forgiving he is,” she said.
She also cited how, as a lawyer, Duterte would not order government forces to kill people.
“He will never instruct anybody, the Armed Forces, or the PNP for that matter, to kill for no reason at all. Hindi niya ho kaya gawin ‘yun, abogado po siya,” she said.
Avanceña was the keynote speaker during the launching of the program at Camp Crame.
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“Alam niyo when he ran [for president], his intention was kahit konti was to make a difference for his country. Wala siyang personal ambition, but the climb has been too daunting. It’s like a struggle for him,” she said.
She added that Duterte will step down once the federal government gets established.
Just like President Duterte, Avanceña also brought up how drug money financed terrorism in the Philippines.
“Drugs has been funding terrorism. Doon sila kumukuha ng pera… That’s how well-funded they are… They say a soldier will fire one bullet and the enemy can fire back five times more. Di niyo na realize grabeng pera ang dumadating sa kanila. Ang kalaban nila ang gobyerno ng Pilipinas,” she said.
In June, Duterte remarked, “Hinayaan kasi natin ang droga. So there was a time and until now that the terrorism activities in the Philippines is funded and fueled by drug money.”
She also brought up her visit to New York City upon the invitation of the US First Lady Melania Trump. She described her attendance at the “socialization gathering,” where she was seated at Table 3 while Trump was at Table 4. She also said that while seated with a representative from Homeland Security, she brought up the Marawi crisis and how it was linked to drugs as her way of asking for assistance.
“I was trying to help out in my own little way, yung gobyerno natin, to tell the people what’s happening in our country,” she said.
In defense of President Duterte’s war on drugs, she said that if killings was indeed the administration’s policy, there would never have been recovery programs for drug users.
She also threw shade at the past administrations and how they failed to address the country’s drug problem.
“With all due respect why is that the past presidents have not addressed illegal drugs as much as the present administration, not as hard as this administration?” she said. “Maybe because they know how extreme, how heavy, the worst adjective you can use, ang bigat ng suliranin nila. And they know how this is a multi-million industry. I think lang ho ha. Hindi ako sila,” Avanceña said.
Duterte has been accused of ordering the killings of drug suspects. After winning in the May 2016 elections, Duterte said he would order security forces to “shoot to kill” those who would resist arrest. He also said in December 2016 that he used to “personally” kill drug suspects in Davao City to show the policemen that if he can do it, they can do it too. However, President Duterte said in September this year that there is no state policy to kill drug suspects amid the government’s bloody war on drugs.
Sources: ( rappler.com , inquirer.net , cnnphilippines.com , sunstar.com.ph )
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