A PALACE spokesman on Wednesday rejected a US intelligence assessment that President Rodrigo Duterte was an autocarat and a regional threat to democracy.
“The World Threat Assessment, which identified President Duterte, including the ruling Thai officials and Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen as among regional leaders who threaten democracy and human rights, is myopic and speculative at best,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement.
“For one, President Rodrigo Duterte is no autocrat… He adheres to the rule of law and remains loyal to the Constitution. An autocracy is not prevalent, as they would like everyone to believe,” Roque said, commenting on the report produced by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
“We view this declaration from no less than the intelligence department of the United States with some concern, knowing that at least in one case the International Court of Justice has found the US guilty of interference in the affairs of a domestic state,” he said, citing the case of Nicragua versus the United States of America.
Roque said Malacañang and even President Duterte will take the report seriously.
“Our media are still able to broadcast and print what they want—”fake news” included. Our judiciary and the courts are functioning as usual. Our legislature remains independent and basic services are still being delivered,” Roque, in a statement.
He said there is no revolutionary government or nationwide martial law in the Philippines, which US intelligence officials are saying that the President might declare or impose.
“While it is true that the administration uses and maximizes social media to promote government messages and accomplishments, members of the political opposition and other cause-oriented groups use the same media platform to advance their agenda,” he said.
“We have to understand the use of social media has become an important part of the daily lives of Filipinos. It is therefore foolhardy not to tap social media as a tool when the technology exists for free,” Roque said.
“I don’t know of any government in the free world which does not use the Internet and social media to promote its agenda. This is very true especially in the case of the US. This latest intelligence assessment is a classic case in point,” he added.
But Duterte critic Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said the US intelligence assessment of Duterte was “fair,” given the recent signs of a “creeping dictatorship.”
“If they’re sensitive enough, they should look at it as some form of a warning shot that he’s nearing that red line because domestically he’s pushing boundaries because he’s popular enough to do that,” Trillanes told the ANC news channel.