After 6 years and short of 9 months in detention for trumped-up drug charges, former Senator Leila de Lima was freed on bail by the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court Branch 206. Her supporters were understandably elated despite the clear injustice she suffered from the hands of a vengeful president at the time and the open support of his officials in government, which, sadly I must say, included a majority of the incumbent Supreme Court Justices.
What may be a tragi-comedy, however, is that the Duterte diehards, the likes of former DOJ Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre, Presidential Legal Adviser Salvador Panelo, former Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque and a number of senators, along with Sen. Bato de la Rosa, made their own comments hinting that the decision of the judge was essentially uncalled for and questionable. Interestingly, DOJ Secretary Crispin Remulla proudly announced that the wheel of justice in the country is alive and well.
Well, if the social media is to be believed, the comments range from “At last. Salamat sa Diyos,” to “Wow, mabuti naman nakita ng judge ang katotohanan at nag-desisyon nang tama!” and “Meron din palang judge na matapang.” Indeed, what a contrast among observers of the national scene --the Duterte-Marcos brand of quick defensive stance with an arrogant bossy tone, and the so-called “opposition” politicians and the “parliament of the streets veterans” and civil society movements and NGOs, with their subdued response of “Thank you, Lord,” and “There’s HOPE, let’s keep going forward step by step, the struggle is long and hard against a dynasty-dominated government bureaucracy and a timid mainstream media.”
For the majority of the Filipino people, however, politics at the national level seems a distant concern. More likely, with 48% considering themselves “poor,” their daily focus is still their wish for a P20/kg of rice, highly affordable vegetables, fruits, chicken and pork. In other words, when will the top leadership of Bongbong-Sara tandem, with the largesse given to its prominent political prisoner Leila de Lima, and with their administration’s 2024 budget amounting to billions of pesos for confidential funds, truly and actually implement a government that has its principal program of bringing justice to every Filipino victim of injustice, even if only to those covering the past 7 years?
Moreover. we cannot forget that the more than 700 political prisoners still languishing in jail, and the more than 30,000 victims of the drug war and those red-tagged under VP Sara’s father have not been given justice until today. So, when will this current administration honestly bring justice to the thousands, if not millions, of Filipinos by seriously bringing about “a just and humane society”?
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