Can there be a difference between the kind of Justice in the Philippines and that of the International Criminal Court (ICC)? In other words, isn’t the end result of a Court of Justice anywhere in the world is the truth of whether the person under litigation is guilty or not.
Former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte withdrew the country’s official membership in the ICC, upon his installation as head of state. Why?
It looked like he made sure that the judicial branch of government will be under his control, especially because he knows, being a lawyer, that his crimes of extra judicial killings (EJKs) as mayor of Davao City (as found by then Chair of the Commission of Human Rights, Leila de Lima) may be the basis for his being brought to a court of justice.
Kill, Kill, Kill
Moreover, on hindsight, he did plan to implement the same kind of EJKs nationwide upon his assumption as the country’s president. And he did not want the ICC having any judicial interference in his plans of carrying out his brutal program of “kill, kill, kill” to solve the country’s drug problem. Interesting, too, that his close friends now senators Bong Goo and Bato de la Rosa are making comments distancing themselves from this issue of EJKs seriously being investigated by the ICC.
No wonder then that President Bongbong Marcos’ Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, quoted by the Inquirer, said that “The Philippines will not return to the ICC… (and) the President is not expected to change his mind….” This was “in reaction to a statement from the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers for President Marcos to submit the quad committee materials to the ICC.”
Duterte’s DOJ secretary and now the current Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, as if to stress the country’s justice system is working well, chimed in by saying that it would be “better” for the quad committee to hand over its findings to the DOJ, NBI, or the Office of the Ombudsman for appropriate action.
Sadly, these responses by government officials whose mandate essentially is “to give justice to every everyone” by upholding the truth at all times, and with dispatch, do not appear credible.
Evasive Truth
As lawyers at that time, with their government positions of great responsibility as guardians of the Constitution and Rule of Law, they could have sought the truth of what was happening with so many killings the first few months under the administration of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
It appears now that they fear the truth of more than 30,000 EJKs carried out by the PNP under the command of the former president will be revealed once the ICC’s jurisdiction will be welcomed back.
They believe and prefer that the "real" truth will best be found under the jurisdiction of the country’s justice system.
BUT the people know and understand what the truth is, who the murderers are, and will not stand idly by however and whenever their public officials will by lying and hiding the TRUTH.
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #OpinYonColumn #ColumnbyBoniMacaranas #PoliticsisLife #ICC #EJKs #DOJ #CHR