IT will be a busy time for the incoming administration as the new president, Rodrigo Duterte, learns the ropes while trying to make good on his campaign promise to wipe out criminality in six months.
To be sure, there is much work to be done, as the Aquino administration leaves behind a hefty backlog of unfinished business in the area of crime and punishment.
High on the list is the Maguindanao massacre, in which 58 people—including more than 30 journalists—were slaughtered and buried in mass graves in November 2009. In its six years in office, the Aquino administration has failed to bring the perpetuators to justice, as the case crawls its way through the court system.
Inauspiciously, Duterte has picked as his press secretary Salvador Panelo, once a lawyer for the members of the Ampatuan clan who are on trial for the massacre. The irony of naming a man who once lawyered for those accused of killing so many journalists to the position of Press secretary has not been lost on the media—nor the families of the victims. This unfortunate circumstance makes it all the more urgent that Duterte administration make more progress than its predecessor in bringing the state’s case to fruition.
Another case that has not moved forward is the case against those accused in the Mamasapano massacre of 44 police commandos during a covert operation approved by President Benigno Aquino III and run illegally by his suspended police chief. After promising that the case would be resolved in “three to four weeks” last January, the acting Justice secretary Emmanuel Caparas had a change of heart in May, saying there were “sensitivities” to be considered. He did not say what these sensitivities were—but we expect the Duterte administration will fulfill its obligation to render justice more seriously.
Various plunder cases against Cabinet secretaries under the Aquino administration will also need to be resolved, after these officials lose their cloak of protection from the President.
President Aquino’s departure from office in 30 days could also add to the amount of unfinished business, as he loses his presidential immunity from suit. This means Aquino can finally be held liable for his role in the Mamasapano debacle, as well as the illegal shuffling of public funds through the Disbursement Acceleration Program, his failure to address human rights violations against the lumad of Mindanao and the use of pork barrel to bribe Congress into convicting an intractable Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
Mr. Aquino may also most likely be taken to court for violating the rights of his predecessor, former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo. Arrested in 2011 on plunder charges, Arroyo has languished under hospital arrest even though state prosecutors have not been able to make a case against her. Her continued detention has been deemed by the UN High Commission on Human Rights as a violation of her rights and international law.
Mrs. Arroyo, meanwhile, has turned down the offer of a pardon from the incoming president because doing so would require that she first plead guilty—something the Aquino administration has failed to prove since her arrest five years ago. Her case, too, needs to be resolved with dispatch, finally, minus the Aquino administration’s political motives.