Malacañang has called out detractors of President Duterte for their “desperate” move to use a political satire show on Netflix to attack the Chief Executive anew a day before last Monday’s polls.
Communications Secretary Martin Andanar made the statement after Hasan Minhaj, in his show “Patriot Act,” criticized Duterte’s drug war, saying the President’s tactics are “pretty extreme.”
In a statement late Tuesday, Andanar said despite the move, the people continued to believe in Duterte, resulting in his senatorial bets to dominate the partial, unofficial tally in the elections.
“We find it desperate that, on the eve of the Philippine midterm elections, the vociferous detractors of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte would use an American comedy show, aired on Netflix, to demonize the Chief Executive and his government in its episode entitled ‘Brazil, Corruption, and the Rainforest’ before the global audience,” he said.
According to Andanar, the “gullible” Minhaj “maliciously implied” that Duterte is an autocrat who “every so often goes on a killing spree.”
“He cited an exaggerated figure – 27,000, which is way higher than the official figure – to besmirch the government’s campaign against illegal drugs,” he said.
“We express outrage that such erroneous narratives, obviously peddled by anti-Duterte haters and trolls, would find their way to the gullible TV host and his comedy show and unwittingly parrot these falsehoods to an audience unaware of the real score in the Philippines,” he added.
Andanar, citing data from the government’s #RealNumbersPH program, said there are about 5,050 drug personalities who died during the 115,435 anti-drug operations from July 2016 to November 2018.
He added that based on reports from the Philippine National Police, a large number of deaths were done by the “hands of vigilantes” due to the rivalry between drug gangs. There were also 164,265 individuals arrested during the police operations.
The Palace official also explained that aside from police operations, the Duterte administration also has rehabilitation programs, noting that there are about 303,533 individuals who graduated from them.
Andanar also told Minhaj that six out of 10 Filipinos pointed out that illegal drug users in their areas decreased, attesting that Duterte’s campaign is effective. He also said that based on polls, seven out of 10 percent of Filipinos agree that the President is serious in solving the killings in the country. (Argyll Geducos)