THOSE WHO BETRAY
18 April 2025
JUDASES AND PILATES
A Personal Reflection on a Good Friday
By Jassy Egan
March 11, 2025 — that night is etched in my memory like a scar that refuses to fade. One of the many videos that flooded the internet showed women crying, shouting, “Sir, ingat ka,” as Former President Rodrigo Duterte was being dragged into a private jet. No clear destination. Just fear. Just uncertainty.
Those weren’t just any women. They were his staff. His inner circle. Their cries weren’t simply of sadness. They were cries of anguish. Disbelief. Pity. But most of all—betrayal. The kind that cuts deep. The kind that doesn’t come from enemies, but from those you once trusted with your life. It felt like a punch to the gut. A stab in the back.
I knew Sir didn’t see it coming. Not like this. Sure, he’s stared death in the face more times than I can count. He’s walked through fire. Faced demons both literal and metaphorical. But this? Being dragged out like a criminal, flown to The Hague? I could feel it. He wasn’t expecting that.
He wasn’t prepared for the sheer audacity of it all—people twisting our Constitution, trampling over the law, and violating even the most basic rights a former President should still be afforded. But knowing Sir, he must have realized: if he resisted, there would be chaos. He chose peace. He took the blow.
But I knew, deep in my gut, that what truly broke him wasn’t the handcuffs. It wasn’t the jet. It wasn’t even The Hague. It was the betrayal. The silence of those who once stood proudly beside him. The ones who turned their backs and offered him up like a trophy. For what? A seat at the table? A bag of silver?
Very, very Judas Iscariot.
Sometimes I think about the senakulo plays during Holy Week, and I wonder—if they ever needed actors for Judas, they’d have plenty to choose from now. I see the faces. And my blood boils just thinking about it.
Even now, I still can’t wrap my head around it. How do you betray someone who trusted you completely? Who mentored you? Who gave you purpose? How do you sell out someone who fought for you, stood with you, defended you at all costs?
Every time I step onto that patch of grass outside the ICC now dry and worn from so many footsteps, I see something remarkable. Filipinos who keep showing up. Who refuse to forget. Who still love, and still believe, in PRRD.
They cry when they see his standee at the small “Duterte Park” here in The Hague. A makeshift tribute, yes, but one built with love. And every time I witness that, it shakes me. It humbles me.
The truth is, our kababayans don’t just love Tatay Digong for what he did. They love him now even more because they see what he has become: an underdog. A man betrayed. A leader sacrificed not for his sins, but for standing in the way of the corrupt and the greedy.
And if people are still wondering why VP Sara Duterte’s trust ratings are soaring while others crash and burn, they’re missing the point.
The answer lies in our collective memory. Our empathy. Our shared sense of justice. We saw what they did to him and also to his daughter. And we will not forget.
Sending FPRRD to the ICC was their biggest mistake. Because the Filipino people, religious at heart, passionate in spirit, recognized something familiar in that moment: an innocent man, accused, condemned, and led to Golgotha.
Before anyone raises a howl—no, Sir never claimed to be a saint. He never pretended to be holier than anyone. But more than a month after that fateful night, one thing has become clear: the Filipino people will stand by the man their own government wrongly and unjustly crucified.
And the Judases and Pilates?
They will never get away with their crimes.
#BringPRRDHome
