This is not about blind loyalty to Duterte. This is about common sense. China did not order the attack on the Filipino fishermen. The captain of the Filipino fishing boat Junel Insigne couldn’t even give an accurate account of what happened. Besides, what do you want Duterte to do? Declare war vs China? C’mon!
It seems that the Opposition’s only real agenda is to exploit this incident as a means to smear the government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte with bad PR. Unfortunately for them a PR disaster means there is fallout. If the Recto Reef incident was a PR disaster, then what is the fallout? Only the people who never trusted Duterte from Day One to do the right thing are disappointed in him. Insigne eventually changed his story and now said he’s not sure.
Bikoy, for example, had a different story when the Yellows were still handling him and then he changed it as soon as they threw him under the bus. It seems that Insigne is acting the same way. He was singing a different tune when he first talked to the media and then changed it. No conviction!
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I noticed too that some people get riled up about imagined offences like “what ifs” out of an encounter that didn’t actually result in tragedy. Chinese officials already responded and appealed for calm and they are also investigating. It’s not like they completely ignored the issue.
I think Duterte’s cabinet did a good job in calming the public and managing the aftermath of this incident. Some members of the Opposition and those with misguided Pinoy “pride” over-reacted and were trying to rile the public with their anti-China stance, but they failed because the fisherman himself changed his tune.
In life, things are not always what they seem.