Dispatch from Crame No. 734:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima on Duterte's "fucking country" comment

3/12/20

This fucking country, Mr. Duterte? Such bitterness coming from someone desperately clinging to whatever is left of the power that this "fucking" country has entrusted you three years ago.

You killed your own people, sold our sovereignty, and led us to a debt trap from which we might never recover. This is how much you hate this country so we are not surprised anymore. Your fellow Filipinos, especially our health workers, are risking their lives to protect this country that you blatantly vilified with contempt. Your allegiance was never with us.

For all your posturing as a patriot, you failed, miserably, to convince your people that you can hold our nation together in the face of a life-threatening health crisis. Instead of reassuring us that the government is prepared to combat this threat, you chose to be divisive, aggravating our fears with your ramblings about plagues, even hinting on the necessity of a cleansing.

Mr. Duterte, you are willing to watch us die from this virus that strong political will, love of country, and clear-headed leadership could have contained at the outset. Instead, you chose the exact opposite. The way you are handling the crisis may be the final nail to your regime's coffin. It will be a long, painful descent. And we will fight to the last not to let this country go to hell with you.

This is a fucking country, only because you have been screwing it hard the past three years. Damn you!

(Access the handwritten version of Dispatch from Crame No. 734, here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatch_no._734)