Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar on Tuesday slammed the detractors of President Rodrigo Duterte for allegedly criticizing him globally through Netflix.
“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,” Andanar said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Malacañang on Wednesday slammed the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s opinion piece entitled “Panelo’s flimflammery,” saying the newspaper had a “habit of twisting statements” from President Duterte and the Palace and putting up “screaming slanted headlines to put us in a bad light.”
On Tuesday, the Inquirer said in its editorial that seeing Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo “gnashing and whinging about the instant karma he got after peddling the amateurish” oust Duterte matrices was “downright comical.”
The paper wrote the editorial after Panelo hit the political meme of the Facebook page “Malacañang Events and Catering Services,” calling it “instant karma.” The satire and parody page edited a picture of Panelo purportedly endorsing the “Otso Diretso” senatorial candidates and others instead of the matrices.
Andanar was referring to Netflix’s political-satire show “Patriot Act” hosted by American comedian Hasan Minhaj.
He called Minhaj “gullible” for believing the drug war narrative of Duterte’s critics.
“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,” Andanar said.
He cited the Filipino public’s continuous satisfaction in the performance of the Duterte administration in combating illegal drugs and poverty.
“For the information of Mr. Minhaj, six out of 10 Filipinos [have] pointed out that the illegal drug users in their areas have decreased based on independent pollsters, attesting that the campaign is effective. Also, seven out of 10 Filipinos mentioned that the Duterte administration is serious in solving the killings in the country,” Andanar said.
“With regard to the root cause, which is poverty, the Duterte administration remains committed to bringing comfortable lives for all. The latest survey shows that the hunger incidence among Filipino families decreased to 9.5 percent while adult joblessness dropped to 19.7 percent.”
Andanar said Minhaj exaggerated the 27,000 drug war victims in his show.
He said only about 5,050 drug personalities died during the 115,435 anti-drug operations from July 2016 to November 2018.
“The Philippine National Police also reported that a large number of deaths were done by the hands of vigilantes due to the rivalry between drug gangs,” Andanar said.
“Mr. Hasan Minhaj, an American comedian, and host, maliciously implied that President Duterte is an “autocrat” who “every so often goes on a killing spree.”
Andanar also slammed Minhaj for implying that the arrest of Rappler chief executive officer Maria Ressa and Senator Leila de Lima were solely due to their criticisms of Duterte.
“On Ms. Ressa and Senator De Lima, their cases underwent legal processes and their politics, or opposition to President Duterte, has nothing to do with the charges that they are now facing,” he said. With Nat Mariano