Pro-Duterte political analyst, Netherlands scholar Sass Rogando Sasot asked Esquire PH editor-in-chief Kristine Fonacier a few questions about her experience with drug pushers and addicts and their exchange of questions and answers on Facebook went viral, gaining hundreds of shares.
Sasot first asked Fonacier two questions, saying, “So Kristine, have you already talked and visited a victim of a shabu addict and pusher? Have you ever been victimised by a shabu addict or pusher?”
To this, Fonacier also took to her Facebook page to give her response on April 22, expressing her eagerness to address such questions.
“Question 1: “So Kristine, have you already talked [sic] and visited a victim of a shabu addict and pusher?” Fonacier wrote.
Note that the Esquire editor also pointed out Sasot’s grammatical error. The Duterte supporter wrote “talked and visited…” instead of “talked to and visited…”
“Answer: Yes. For a couple of years, I was friends with a woman whose husband was a shabu addict who victimized their daughter. They live in a poor community in Montalban. I also am friends with people who live in communities where Oplan Tokhang is in place,” Fonacier said.
To Sasot’s second question about whether Fonacier had fallen victim to a drug dealer or addict, she said: “Answer: Tricky, since they never caught the guy who drew a home-made gun on me to hold me up. Police suspect he did it for drug money, but without the perpetrator being caught and without due process, we’ll never know.”
Fonacier then posed her own set of four questions to Sasot.
“My turn to ask the questions: When did you last accompany media people on the night beat to see if indeed they manufactured fake news? When did you last speak to the families of innocents killed in this drug war? When did you last visit a poor community to ask if they feel safer? Heck, here’s an easy one: how much time have you spent in the Philippines in the last five years?” she wrote.
Sasot responded to Fonacier’s questions on the same day.
On whether she has tried accompanying media people covering the night beat to verify if they write manufactured fake news, Sasot said that no, she hasn’t. She reasoned and clapped back at Fonacier, saying, “But I don’t really need to accompany them in order to check if what they’ve written is correct. I guess you haven’t accompanied 7,000 night beats to verify that each of them were EJKs right? Oh, BTW, it’s now 9000. Be honest.”
Sasot also said that she talked to a Filipina domestic helper in the Middle East, who told her via Facebook messenger that her youngest sister was raped and killed by a drug addict.
“The last time I talked to a family of an innocent victim was two weeks ago I think. Ate Jenney, a proud DH in the Middle East, messaged me, to check out on me after that LP Spy issue. Her sister, whom she fondly calls Bunso, was raped and murdered by a shabu addict. Her sister is innocent. Regularly, I get messages from random people sharing to me the inhumanity and brutality they experienced from drug addicts and pushers. I have two friends who were brutally murdered by shabu addicts,” she wrote.
“Unlike you Ms Fonacier, I believe that this drug war was started by drug cartels and their government protectors, which include your favorite senator, Senator Leila de Lima, against our country. It wasn’t Duterte who started it. Our government is simply fighting back,” Sasot said, defending the Duterte administration’s war on drugs.
“The drug war launched by drug cartels has caused a lot of families to break, including the family of your friend, girls and women raped, has terrorised a lot of communities, and cities, people murdered dahil napag-“tripan” sila ng adik.”
To the question about when she last visited a poor community to inquire about their feeling of safety, Sasot said that while she hasn’t been to such a community in the last five years, she was raised in one, in contrast to Fonacier’s residence “in a gated community.”
“I have a lot of childhood friends who lived in looban. And yup, drug addicts and pushers were a pest in their lives,” she added.
“I believe you’ve been frequenting those “poor communities” a lot. So have you asked them if they love their drug addicts and pushers?”
Sasot also included a Bacoor kagawa’s message to her:
“Sass baka naman pede ako huningi ng tulong regarding sa lugar namin dito sa Bacoor Cavite, lalong lalo na dito sa amin sa Mabolo merong isang tulak dito na ilang bes na nai report sa tagal na panahon hanggang ngayun d magalaw,kasi balita namin may mga among pulis na naka pwesto dito sa Bacoor.marami na sa amin ang natatakot dahil kahit pulis walang magawa sa tulak na ito… Akoy iaang kagawad dito sa lugar namin tagal na namin naiteport to pero walang nangayyari kaya susubukan kong lumapit sayo…. Natatakot kasi kami lalo sa pamilya namin ngayung nalaman namin na kasabwat nya ang mga pulis bacoor… Tulad nung iaang bes ung kumnder ng station namin dito kinausap namin pero ang sagot sa amin wag muna daw ung tao nayun…. Kaya tanong namin sa aming mga sarili BAKIT… sana matulungan mo kami maipaalam sa nakakataas o kaya maipost public….. Senaya na sass natatakot kasi kami na balikan kami.. Salanat po at pasensya na sa storbo….. Ang pangalan po angvtulak dito sa amin ay si ********* may kapangalan po yaan fito sa lugar namin ung isa po kalbo ung isa…… Ung hindi kalbo ang tulak dto sa amin… Maraming salamat po”
And posed this question to Fonacier, “since you are in the Philippines, why don’t you visit his community and tell them to love their pusher?”
“I’m turning 35 this year darling. Why are the five years of my life lived here in The Netherlands more relevant than the 30 years of my life lived in the Philippines? If you are asking that question to passive-aggressively call out my “privilege” life, I bet you haven’t sold your puke or pwet yet just to have food on your table,” Sasot concluded her response to Fonacier’s last question about how much time she has spent in her homeland in the last five years.
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What do you think of this exchange?
