OPINION | Political persecution

April 20, 2025 , 10:04 AM

By Manny Mogato

(April 20, 2025) – This past week, the world’s Christendom remembered Jesus Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection more than 2,000 years ago in ancient Israel.

As a mortal, Jesus of Nazareth was persecuted by Jewish religious leaders, led by the Chief Priest Caiaphas and other high priests, who saw him as a threat to their power, influence, and wealth.

Jesus’ teachings in the first-century Israel challenged Jewish religious leaders’ authority as the man from Galilee started to gain a huge following from among the poorer Jews, including prostitutes, tax collectors, and outcasts.

The Romans, who ruled the world at that time, did not understand Jesus when he was called the Messiah and the King of the Jews.

They thought he was a troublemaker who would liberate Israel, and Jewish religious leaders knew this and took advantage of the situation to eliminate the competition.

Political allies and supporters of former president Rodrigo Duterte saw some parallelism in the arrest and transfer of the former leader to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.

They accused Pres. Bongbong Marcos Jr’s administration of “kidnapping” Duterte and bringing him to the ICC without due process, violating his rights.

Duterte was pictured as an 80-year-old sick man who deserved compassion as he was whisked off to a private plane for an almost 24-hour flight to the Netherlands.

Almost an hour after his arrest, social media platforms were flooded by pro-Duterte narratives, extolling his virtues and his helplessness, forgetting that the former strongman was involved in killing thousands of poor Filipinos and stealing billions in government funds.

Some people even tried to justify the killings as necessary for law and order and to eradicate the drug problem, which they blamed for widespread criminality.

Disinformation, lies, and fabrications have emotionally influenced many Filipinos to sympathize with Duterte’s bleeding heart.

It is, therefore, unfair to paint the former president as unjustly persecuted.

There is no parallelism between Jesus, who saved mankind from death, and Duterte, who has no remorse in killing his people in the name of his policy on war on drugs.

During his three-year ministry, Jesus raised people from the dead, healed the sick, cast out demons, and performed miracles like turning water into wine, feeding thousands from a few pieces of fish and bread, and calming seas.

On the other hand, Duterte showed no mercy when police executed street-level drug peddlers, couriers, and users in make-believe sting operations and in shutting down the country’s largest broadcast network and threw more than 11,000 workers to the streets during the COVID pandemic.

Worse, he allowed his friends to generate billions of pesos in unnecessary pandemic responses, like the plastic face shields.

Duterte also allowed public sector debt to balloon from only 5 trillion pesos to 13 trillion pesos.

The economy plunged into a recession that forced many Filipinos into poverty. The effects of these mismanagement and blatant corruption, which Filipinos continue to feel to this day.

Marcos has been struggling to keep the economy afloat, causing his popularity and approval rating to decline.

Jesus did not deserve to be persecuted by Jewish religious leaders. He willingly did it to save mankind from sins and death.

He was a king, but his kingdom was not on earth.

Nearly four decades after the Jewish religious leaders preserved their power and wealth by eliminating Jesus of Nazareth, they lost everything after the Romans destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem, their source of power and wealth, in 70 AD in a rebellion not associated with Christians.

Christianity survived the persecution, and Emperor Constantine made it a state religion in the 4th century.

The ICC is no Roman Empire that ruled the Philippines. Marcos was neither a Jewish religious leader who persecute Duterte.

Marcos followed the rule of law and handed Duterte over to the ICC based on Republic Act 9851. There was no kidnapping. Duterte’s rights were respected, and everything was legal.

What Marcos did was give families of extrajudicial killings (EJK) victims a hope for justice to be served.

When Duterte was in power, no investigation was initiated for his wrongdoing in the Philippines. He couldn’t be tried and convicted in any court in the country.

The ICC would give Duterte a fair trial. The elusive justice might be achieved in the end. His arrest and trial in the ICC were not political persecution.

It is justice for families who lost loved ones in the drug war policy. He deserved punishment for decades of impunity.

Jesus is a man of peace. Duterte is a violent man.

The views expressed by the columnist do not necessarily reflect that of the media organization.

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