Dispatch from Crame No. 1062:
Sen. Leila M. de Lima on Duterte's continued betrayal

4/30/21

We no longer expect Duterte to defend us, our EEZ, and our land and sea claims in the WPS. That has been patent a long time ago. Most of us already sound like broken records pointing out the betrayal of our national patrimony by China's Manchurian candidate in the Philippines, Rodrigo Roa Duterte.

Just the same, we can't simply ignore it when he repeats his treason so often it is already a grave insult to all of us who still care for this country.

Hindi pa ba sapat na binenta mo na kami sa Tsina nang matagal na, kailangan mo pang ulit ulitin ang iyong pagtatraydor sa ating bayan? Ilang beses mo ba uulit ulitin na mahal na mahal mo ang Tsina at wala kang gagawin sa pananakop nila sa ating teritoryo? Ilang beses mo ba ipagyayabang sa amin ang iyong pagka-duwag at pagka-inutil sa pagtanggol sa ating bayan laban sa mananakop na mga Tsino?

To justify his treason and cowardice, Duterte keeps harping on the fake history that the WPS was lost during the PNoy Administration. Quite the contrary, the WPS was won during the PNoy Administration when we filed a case against China and the UNCLOS Arbitral Tribunal affirmed our entitlements to our EEZ in the WPS, and declared China's nine-dash line claim without legal basis under international law. But of course, from day one of this victory, Duterte already betrayed us by going soft and defeatist, refusing to assert more firmly the Tribunal ruling.

Meron pa bang mas tututa sa pagkatuta ni Duterte sa Tsina? I don't think there is. This is the lowest of the low that one can become a puppet of a foreign power. And yet we tolerate it as if it is everyday that a Filipino President commits treason and sells out to a foreign power. Not even the most AmBoy of our post-war Presidents stooped to such level of mendicancy and slavery. This is the only President that is so proud to proclaim his treason against his country and declare his love for another. No one else, only Duterte. And his spokesperson even has the gall to call him a modern-day Lapu-lapu?

Meron bang bayaning mandirigma na imbes na lumaban ay humalik pa sa paa ng mananakop? Dahil doon lang naman magaling si Duterte, ang sumipsip at magpakatuta sa Tsina. Kung buhay lang si Lapu-lapu, matagal ng hiniwalay ang ulo niyan sa kanyang katawan. Tayo lang naman ang nagtitiis pa sa isang traydor sa ating lipunan.

And where does this end? Surely China will support another Manchurian candidate after the term of its current mongrel in Malacanang ends, and it will keep doing so as long as Filipinos continue to tolerate traitors in their midst. It is up to us whether we choose to remember and reforge our history as a nation of heroes, not of traitors. Only then can we end this puppetry that China was able to string us to since July 2016, when our country was sold again like a sack of potatoes, this time not by foreigners, but by our very own President.

Lapu-lapu? More like Makapili.

(Access the handwritten copy of Dispatch from Crame No. 1062, here: https://issuu.com/senatorleilam.delima/docs/dispatchno1062)