MANILA, Aug. 26 (PNA) — Amidst criticism against his harsh stand on illegal drugs and the rising body count in the war against illegal drugs, President Rodrigo Duterte finds a champion among the citizenry, particularly from a lady who stood up and wrote an open letter addressed to her friends and relatives living in the United States and citizens of the world.
Posting publicly on her Facebook page, Krizette Laureta Chu acted as the voice of reason in an environment known to be a breeding ground for hate and verbal skirmishes among “netizens”.
Chu wrote the letter as a reaction to a news item with a photo of Americans in a protest rally in New York City. In the crowd, a woman is seen brandishing a sign that says, “Duterte is a mass murderer.”
“What you see in the news, the killings on the streets, is not the handiwork of the government. As the President often says, what we’re dealing with is not a crisis, but a war. And there will be blood. There is blood not just because of legal police apprehensions, but because the drug cartels are cleaning up after their own,” Chu wrote.
Never in Philippine history has social media become more relevant or powerful. More than ever, netizens are actively involved in voicing out their opinions—whether good or bad, for or against issues in a local and global scale.
President Duterte has always believed in the power of the internet and its ability to connect people from around the country and around the globe. Though not a “techie”, Duterte believes the Filipino people should have a decent internet service not only to bridge the distance between families and friends but also as a way to exercise their freedom of expression as guaranteed in every democracy.
