“The issue is one of self-respect as a sovereign nation with a functioning government capable of rendering justice to its citizens”
IT MAY be too soon to call our benighted land a failed State.
But the events of Tuesday, where a Filipino citizen and a former head of state was hastily surrendered to a foreign court without giving him the due processes of our own justice system, is but one of the milestones that in time will render us a failed State.
Never mind fairness. Never mind respect for a predecessor. The current president may have none of those for Rodrigo Roa Duterte, whose daughter he conveniently used to win election under the banner of a Uniteam that no longer exists.
And while Duterte clearly never had respect for the current occupant of Malacanang, one cannot fault him for having been unfair to his predecessors.
The issue here is not whether violation of human rights is justifiable for a “higher” consideration, that of “protecting” the overwhelmingly larger number of people from the scourge of illegal drugs.
That is for our justice system, and history, to decide.
The issue is one of self-respect as a sovereign nation with a functioning government capable of rendering justice to its citizens.
Our Constitution shelters a president from criminal prosecution while he is in office, but not when he is no longer in power. Recent history did that to Joseph Ejercito Estrada, as it did to Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who both had to face our courts of law and were detained accordingly.
But on that infamous Tuesday, the 11th of March, our government did what no self-respecting government would: it surrendered our sovereignty to a foreign court created by a treaty to which we no longer subscribe.
That our government did it with undue haste, and shanghaied our former president in the dark of night 13 hours after he was “arrested” upon returning from Hong Kong into the waiting arms of an international tribunal which had issued useless warrants against two other prominent heads of state and government, Russia’s Putin and Israel’s Netanyahu.
Our government gave the ICC not only relevance but obeisance.
Recall that previous statements of Pres. Marcos Junior maintained that we would not cooperate with the ICC. Volte face in the past few days is clearly borne out of the toxic political relationship between the two “ruling” clans.
Now here is a page from my recollection of past events:
In 2021, when we were with then Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, the presidential candidate declared in no uncertain terms that he would not allow the ICC to try Pres. Duterte. If anyone files a case in our courts of law against the retiring president, then let due process take its course, we kept saying.
In his colorful patois, Moreno kept saying “hindi ko isu-soga ang pangulo sa mga banyaga”.
The former scavenger from Tondo who finished only two years of law from Arellano University maintained that stance not as legal argument but as a matter of national pride and protection of our sovereignty.
Last Tuesday, while the former president was detained at Villamor Air Base, lawyer-friends called to ask: “Wala bang kaso si PRRD dito sa atin?”
If a case for the same offense is pending in our courts of law, that would have taken precedence over the claims of a foreign tribunal.
Still, violation of the former president’s Constitutional rights were clear last Tuesday. Even by ICC standards, our domestic courts should have first determined that arrest followed proper procedures, with full respect for the person’s rights.
But Herr General Torre would have none of that. And when Duterte’s lawyers filed for a TRO with the Supreme Court, where political prudence, never mind fairness, would have called for a stay of extradition or rendition, pending the tribunal’s decision.
Clearly, the whole episode was pre-planned, for, after all, the ICC issued its warrant of arrest on March 6. The government forthwith went into high gear in preparing to arrest and thereafter surrender the accused.
They were discomfited when the former president went to Hong Kong for a speaking engagement at a rally for his senatorial candidates. His detractors fanned speculations about him seeking the protection of China, which is farthest from Duterte’s character.
The use of a chartered private jet, supposedly owned by a wealthy politician-businessman, demonstrated both haste and stealth.
Meanwhile, an issue that overshadows the forthcoming impeachment of the political heiress of the arrested president fixates the nation, stirs up emotions, temporarily forgetting the issues that matter — prices, livelihood, earnings bedeviled by worsening corruption, will take a backseat to this high drama as we face elections 60 days from now.
Meanwhile too, the president whose family was exiled and demonized by the yellow army is now ensconced in the “warm” embrace of its erstwhile enemies who are gloating at the humiliation of their sworn enemy, “for now” – the Dutertes of Mindanao.
What a country!