De Lima, Robredo, Soreno, Ressa

By: Bob Boyer

 

These are the names of four prominent Filipino women: Philippine Senator Leila De Lima, Philippine Vice President Leni Robredo, Former Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Soreno, and on line newsmagazine “Rappler” Editor-in-Chief Marie Ressa. All four women have been leading critics of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte; all four have been objects of President Duterte’s attacks.

Senator De Lima has been critical of Duterte’s violent methods of addressing the country’s severe drug problem since at least 2009 when Duterte was Mayor of Davao, Mindanao. She increased her attacks in 2016 when he became President for his encouraging vigilante killings of drug addicts by the national police. I first reported on her in this column in March and then again in December of 2017. In March I quoted a recent “New York Times” article (Feb. 24), “Filipino Senator, Foe of Duterte, Accused of Graft.” Her accuser was a close friend and supporter of Duterte’s. A Philippine court ordered her arrest. I noted in December that she was still in prison, without trial.

In the same column I wrote also about VP Robredo. She had recently been interviewed by an international news organization, “DW” (Deutche Welle). Robredo told “DW” that she had been optimistic about finding common ground with President Duterte. He had recently appointed her to his Cabinet for Housing and Urban Development, but then he ordered her “to stop coming to Cabinet Meetings.” He was basically ordering the VP of the Philippines to the sidelines. Robredo, however, used her position to provide polite but vocal opposition to the president and became a “counterpoint” to Duterte policies, particularly his violent drugs-war, as well as his abusive manner of speaking about women, for example by joking publicly and repeatedly about rape, as I noted in my June 2019 article. Surprisingly Duterte appointed VP Leni Robredo to head up lead the “Drug War,” as I noted in this column in December of 2019. But he then fired her from the position within weeks.

Maria Lourdes Soreno came to my attention in 2018, largely thanks to a couple of articles in the “Wall Street Journal” by their Manila correspondent Jake Maxwell Watts. In March Watts had reported on Duterte’s drugs war, noting that Duterte’s “drug enforcement offi cials said . . . that nearly 4100 people have been killed in shootouts with the police” and that other sources estimated that the number of killings was much higher. Then in May Watts attributed the “ouster” of SCJ Maria Lourdes Soreno to her repeated public criticisms of Duterte’s “deadly anti-drugs campaign.” Watts also broadened the context of the attack on Soreno, noting that Duterte had attacked Senator De Lima for the same reason, her repeated criticism of his violent anti-drugs war. Furthermore, Watts notes, Duterte attacked the newsmagazine “Rappler” for its similar criticism of his anti-drugs war. Duterte asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to “examine” “Rappler.” The SEC did and ordered “Rappler” closed. It remains open while fi ghting the decision. Maria Lourdes Soreno considered running for Senate in the 2019 mid-term elections, and was encouraged to do so by VP Robredo, but Soreno decided that doing so would endanger her family.

In my December, 2019 column I quoted the “NYT Sunday Magazine” article, “The Journalist and the Autocrat,” which featured “Investigative journalist and editor of the on line news magazine, “Rappler,” Maria Ressa and her staff of a dozen reporters, mostly women [who] have been attacking President Duterte relentlessly, despite the president’s angry, public verbal attacks on them. Their main focus is Duterte’s Drug War.” Editor Ressa was jailed twice in 2019. She is now free. Bob Boyer welcomes your comments at Robert.boyer@snc.edu.