Press Release
September 20, 2018

HONTIVEROS: DUTERTE IS "DESTABILIZER-IN-CHIEF"

"Destabilizer-in-Chief."

This was how Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros described President Rodrigo Duterte a day before the country commemorates the 46th anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law by the deposed dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Responding to Duterte's accusations that the opposition is involved in a destabilization plot to unseat him, Hontiveros said that Duterte is the real destabilizer of the country's state of affairs, comparing the President to the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. She said that under both regimes, thousands became victims of extrajudicial killings, both resorted to Martial Law, committed gross acts of human rights abuses, mismanaged the economy and persecuted the opposition and political dissidents.

"The President is desperately linking the opposition to a so-called destabilization plot not admitting that he is actually the country's 'destabilizer-in-chief.' Like his idol, the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, President Duterte has destabilized the country's economy and the price of basic goods and commodities, he has destablized our democracy and institutions of governnance," Hontiveros said.

"If President Duterte is looking for destabilizers, he has only to look into a mirror," Hontiveros added.

Hontiveros challenged Duterte to focus his time and energy on addressing the country's worsening economic woes instead of "chasing ghosts of destabilization plots."

"President Duterte should stop obsessing about destabilization conspiracies and start working to stabilize the economy through sound economic policies," she said.

Hontiveros is expected to join a "democracy rally" this Thursday afternoon. Dubbed as "Manindigan Para Sa Demokrasya: A Rally for Moral Courage," more than a thousand people are expected to converge at the historic Plaza Miranda. Aside from Hontiveros, some of the other personalities expected to attend are Manila Archbishop Broderick Pabillo, former Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Chairperson Loretta Ann Rosales, Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin and Father Bernardine Leones.

Students from the University of the Philippines (UP), Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP), University of Santo Tomas (UST), Miriam College, Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) and De La Salle University (DLSU) are also expected to attend the rally.

The rally is reportedly led by Akbayan Party, Kilusan para sa Makabansang Ekonomiya (KME), Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya (KPD), Sentro ng Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (SENTRO), Student Council Alliance of the Philippines (SCAP) and Akbayan Youth.

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