Malacañang called former President Rodrigo Duterte a liar and a “one-man fake-news factory” after he accused his successor, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., of plotting to declare martial law, so he could stay in power beyond his term.
“We treat the former president’s baseless and ridiculous statements in the same way that Filipinos are dismissive of them: a tall tale from a man prone to lying and to inventing hoaxes. This hoax is another ‘budol’ [scam] emerging from a one-man fake-news factory,” said Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin in a statement on Sunday.
The Palace official reassured Filipinos that Mr. Marcos harbors no such thoughts.
“As our actions have consistently demonstrated, we will stay the course in upholding the Constitution, in adhering to the rule of law, and in respecting the rights of the people,” Bersamin said.
“We will not backslide into the oppressive ways of the previous administration, when critics were jailed on trumped-up charges and when kill orders were publicly issued with glee and obeyed blindly,” the Palace official added.
In a speech delivered Saturday in Mandaue City, Duterte claimed that Marcos might go toward the authoritarian route like his late father and namesake by imposing martial law.
“Mr. Marcos is veering towards a dictatorship. I bet he will not step down after his term. It will be just like his father’s time. He will impose martial law,” Duterte was quoted as saying in a mix of English and Bisaya.
It can be recalled, however, that on May 23, 2017, at the start of the Marawi siege, Duterte issued Proclamation No. 216, placing the whole island of Mindanao under martial law.
The state of martial law was extended thrice by Congress at the behest of Duterte, citing the necessity to quell hostile activities perpetrated by terrorist groups, and ended with the third extension lapsing on December 31, 2019, or more than two years after the Marawi rebellion had ended.
The Duterte administration was also plagued by alleged human rights violations attributed to his bloody war on drugs.
On January 26, 2023, a pre-trial chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) authorized the court’s prosecutor to resume his investigation into the situation in the Philippines.
The investigation covers alleged crimes committed from November 2011 to June 2016, including the large number of extrajudicial killings in Davao City while Duterte was its mayor as well as in other parts of the country during his presidency.
“It is the leader of that troubled past who is depicting us as veering toward a system where anyone can be deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law, as many had been on his mere say-so as a tyrant who did not respect the rights of the people,” Bersamin pointed out.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline: “Bersamin calls Duterte a ‘fake news factory’ over martial law lies”