The Senate and PRRD

 The recent appearance of former PRRD before the senate gave me some personal insights. Remember. These are my personal insights.

 First of all, once again, he has shown the lack of proper breeding and no sense of decorum. I wonder what kind of household he had growing up and what kind of family he had reared.  He constantly cursed and even with extreme pride.  Never mind. We have always known the kind of man he is.  Let us just say his conflicting pronouncements gave me a headache. 

To paraphrase the main theme of his statements, he said, sounding noble to his minions by the way they clapped and cheered, “I shall be held liable for all the killings. Do not blame it on the cops… If I am given another chance, I shall do these again.”  Was he true to his words? I have reason to believe that the former President’s pronouncements are not really that gallant. These pronouncements may even be ignoble.  When confronted by Sen Risa Hontiveros if his commitment extended to those innocent civilians who died from the police, his response can be attributed to either, he did not understand the question fully or that he thinks he has something up his sleeves.  He waivered saying something like “walang maniniwalang abugado dyan.”  So, he believes, just like Roque, that his smugness is coming from a technical standpoint.  Me lusot, ika nga. The Bill of Rights guarantee that no person shall be a witness against himself.  Therefore, his words cannot be used against him.  These have to be proven which might take a long time maybe until his death and then he shall go scot free.  Also, he is a septuagenarian, a mitigating circumstance in the Revised Penal Code of the country.  What that means is that he cannot suffer the full extent of the law.

On a deeper level, cops who followed his directives should be held responsible and cannot claim they were just following orders.  A subordinate should ONLY follow lawful orders.  To kill an accused without the benefit of a fair trial is wrong in any country, in any jurisdiction, unless it is a dictatorial form of government, perhaps.  Duterte knows this, as a matter of fact, he said no PMAer would have followed had he categorically said that.  However, there are a lot of footages that see him explicitly or impliedly mentioning this directive. This can even be felt with his pronouncements before the Senate. He probably thinks because he was the President, he was giving a lawful order because, in his way of thinking, that is his way.  Well, is he correct?  The death penalty is no longer being meted out to even heinous crimes by our laws.  So, even if any criminal who will be found guilty in a court of law, cannot be given the death penalty.  Duterte’s claim clearly is in violation of the principle of “innocence unless proven guilty.”  A principle lost on all his believers.  Even more problematic is his admission having told the police to plant evidence just to pin down a suspect. According to him, that was his way when he was still a prosecutor.   How horrible it will be for a parent if his/her child is suspected and planted evidence and be killed just so he will have no more “problems” with criminal elements. Such was the case when out of nowhere, the government would have a list of addicts and pushers and be accosted and killed as in the famous “tokhang” series.  Imagine if you had a quarrel with a neighbor or a Barangay captain and they included your child to that list?  What a nightmare that would have been, right?  True enough, it happened many times before. Imagine, no right to a fair trial. Duterte’s kind of justice. Kill and get rid of these criminals.  Futhermore, there are evidences now that point out that big time criminals are not touched because they are being favored. But that has yet to be proven. 

Well, he always said he is going to hell. There is a strong possibility he will.  Life is all about choices and he made a choice.  At least there is one thing we can agree on .