AFTER MORE THAN 10 years of agonizing wait by the 30,000 or so families of the victims of extra-judicial-killings (EJKs), is justice for them about to be just around the corner?
It took the initiative of civil society citizens to form an honest-to-goodness Truth Commission to seriously investigate the drug war killings of more than 30,000 Filipinos, masterminded by the ICC jailbird, former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte, and heartlessly carried out by his then PNP Chief (now the fugitive from ICC justice) Sen. Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa, along with his PNP generals, and supported by the Dutertes’ children, like then Davao Mayor Sara Duterte, Polong and Baste, and known cronies and friends in Congress, like Sen. Christopher ‘Bong’ Go, and the then Secretary of the Department of Justice Vicente Aguirre.
The civilian body, non-governmental Truth Commission, headed by former International Criminal Court (ICC) Judge Raul Pangalangan, opened its first hearing last August 14, “with the testimony of the mother of a 19-year-old disabled man, who was shot dead by masked gunmen in 2017 on suspicion that he was peddling marijuana and ‘shabu’ (crystal meth).” – INQUIRER.
NO OBJECTION?
For Filipinos of goodwill, it was also an agonizing wait and depressing wonder, that the key officials in all branches of government – the Executive, the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Judiciary/Supreme Court – and even such NGOs as the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) and the Philippine Bar Association (PBA) did not raise any clear and loud audible strong objection to the killing sprees encouraged and commanded by the ICC jailbird, Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
Even when the former-president Rodrigo publicly praised the policemen for killing about 30 suspected addicts in one day, and commented that he preferred such a record of killings in a day, there was only silence from the IBP, PBA, and sadly, even from the Churches’ top leaderships –the Cardinal and the bishops!
It is common knowledge that the lawyer-members of the IBP and PBA have their own internal conflictual differences in loyalties to their fraternities – thus, their organizations probably could not issue a common stand in the form of a public statement condemning the bloody drug war program of the ICC jailbird, or perhaps they were simply afraid to cross swords with Duterte’s brand of godless governance.
But there were a few voices that condemned the former president – then Caloocan Bishop Ambo David, Dagupan-Lingayen Bishop Soc Villegas, Negros Bishop Gerardo Alminaza, the ‘running priest’ Fr. Robert Reyes, Fr. Flavie Villanueva, SVD, Fr. Albert “Pareng Bert” Alejo, SJ, the Makabayan Bloc spokespersons, Akbayan Partylist spokespersons, and many SocMed netizens, who expressed their disgust and called for a stop to the bloody illegal response to the drug problem, which in most cases should have been considered healthcare-rehabilitation cases.
And, most importantly, the correct legal response in apprehending a suspect is not for the policemen to kill, but only to arrest him/her with due process, as the law requires. The PNP ground troops obeyed their Police Generals and Station Commanders, thinking they were simply doing their jobs, firing their guns in accordance with the clear command of the Commander-in-Chief, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte!
HOPEFUL JUSTICE
The Truth Commission, in its mission to deliver “healing-based justice,” will listen and faithfully document the testimonies and stories of the EJK victims’ families.
The findings “could still contribute to the various investigations conducted on the killings, including those done to build the case against former President Rodrigo Duterte in his upcoming trial.”
For the EJK victims’ grieving widows, children, mothers, fathers, and relatives, the Truth Commission spells “hopeful JUSTICE!”