By Argyll Cyrus Geducos

Malacañang called out the detractors of President Duterte for their desperate move to use a political satire show on Netflix to attack the President anew before Monday’s polls.

Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said Hasan Minhaj, in his show “Patriot Act,” criticized Duterte’s drug war, saying the President’s tactics are “pretty extreme.”

Andanar said despite this, people continue to believe in Duterte, resulting in his senatorial bets dominating the partial, unofficial tally in the elections.

“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,” he said.

According to Andanar, the “gullible” Minhaj “maliciously implied” that Duterte is an autocrat who “every so often goes on a killing spree.”

“He cited an exaggerated figure — 27,000, which is way higher than the official figure – to besmirch the government’s campaign against illegal drugs,” he said.

“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,” he added.

Andanar, citing data from the government’s #RealNumbersPH program, said there are about 5,050 drug personalities who died during the 115,435 anti-drug operations from July 2016 to November 2018.

He added that based on reports from the Philippine National Police (PNP), a large number of deaths were by the “hands of vigilantes” due to the rivalry among drug gangs. There were also 164,265 individuals arrested during the same police operations.

The Palace official also explained that aside from police operations, the Duterte administration also has rehabilitation programs with about 303,533 individuals benefitting from these programs.

Andanar also told Minhaj that six of 10 Filipinos pointed out that illegal drug users in their areas decreased, proving that Duterte’s campaign is effective. He also said that based on polls, 7 of 10 percent of Filipinos agree that the President is serious in solving the killings in the country.

Andanar pointed to poverty as the root cause of the problem and vowed that the government is committed to bringing comfortable lives to all.

“The latest survey shows that hunger incidence among Filipino families decreased to 9.5 percent while adult joblessness dropped to 19.7 percent,” Andanar said.

Andanar also addressed Minhaj’s praises for Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and detained Senator Leila de Lima for “standing up” against Duterte.

The former journo reiterated Malacañang’s stand that the cases of Ressa and De Lima underwent legal processes and their politics, or opposition to President Duterte, has nothing to do with the charges that they are now facing.

“Both personalities violated domestic laws with Ms. Ressa committing tax evasion, breach of anti-dummy laws, and violation of cyber laws; and Senator De Lima transgressing anti-drug laws,” Andanar said.

Andanar called out Minhak for finding fault with the President’s endorsement of certain personalities in the Senate.

“The Philippines, like the USA, is a country where democracy is vibrant and the will of the people reigns supreme. Ultimately, it is the Filipino people who will choose their own set of leaders and we simply have to respect the results of the elections,” he said.

“The preliminary results of the nationwide polls affirmed that the public indeed heeded the President’s call. This proves that the voting population continues to believe in the genuine reforms advocated by the candidates endorsed by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte,” he added.