Palace says Rodrigo Duterte a ‘fake-news factory,’ describes his administration as ‘troubled past’
Metro Manila, Philippines - Malacañang on Sunday, Feb. 23, defended President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. from an accusation that he was “veering towards a dictatorship,” thrown by his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte amid an important campaign season for the senate.
Duterte issued the accusation during an indignation rally in Mandaue City, Cebu on Saturday, where supporters said they were fighting against “impeachment, corruption, oppression, illegal drugs, and criminality.”
“Mr. Marcos is veering towards a dictatorship, mupusta, dili na manaog pagkahuman sa iyang termino,” the former chief executive said.
“Pareho na sa iyang tatay. Magkagubot na pud ta because ang iyang buhaton mu-deklara ng martial law pareha sa iyang papa. Pag martial law, way election, siya na pud,” Duterte said.
[Translation: Mr. Marcos is veering towards a dictatorship. I will make a bet that he will not step down after his term. It will be like his father. It will be chaos because he will declare martial law just like his father. During martial law, there will be no elections, and he will be in power.]
Marcos’ father was the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos, who placed the Philippines under martial law in 1972 for 14 years before being ousted through the People Power Revolution in February 1986.
In a scathing statement Sunday, the Palace said that Duterte’s “baseless and ridiculous statements” would be treated as “a tall tale from a man prone to lying and to inventing hoaxes.”
“This hoax is another budol [scam] emerging from a one-man fake-news factory,” Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said.
Bersamin said that the administration “will stay the course in upholding the Constitution,” adding that it would adhere to the rule of law and respect people’s rights.
Another attack: Duterte’s administration oppressive
In the same statement, Bersamin also described Duterte’s presidency from 2016 to 2022 as a “troubled past.”
“We will not backslide into the oppressive ways of the previous administration, when critics were jailed upon trumped-up charges and when kill orders were publicly issued with glee and obeyed blindly,” the executive secretary said.
“It is the leader of that troubled past who is depicting us as veering toward a system where anyone can be deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law, as many had been on his mere say-so as a tyrant who did not respect the rights of the people,” he added.
The rift between Marcos and Duterte, a tandem who once campaigned with a call for unity, had been pronounced since 2024.
During campaign sorties of the “Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas,” Marcos consistently said that none from the administration slate had traces of blood from the drug war, or had praised China, and were enablers of crime and illegal offshore gaming operations, among other attacks on Duterte’s government.
For his part, Duterte continuously claimed Marcos of being a drug addict. He said the senatorial bets of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino would protect her daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte.
The House of Representatives has impeached the vice president, but the Senate has yet to tackle the articles of impeachment due to the congressional break.
Senate President Chiz Escudero had said the impeachment trial may begin after the State of the Nation Address in July — already at the start of the 20th Congress with the new batch of senators coming in to become judges.
The impeachment of Duterte was mainly based on her supposed assassination threats against the First Family and the House speaker, and her alleged misuse of confidential funds.
