‘There are lots of unaccounted number of family members
and other witnesses who have mysteriously disappeared since the rampant drug killings started in 2016.’
THE 1987 Constitution explicit states that the Armed Forces of the Philippines will serve “as the protector of the people,” which became the mantra of the rebel forces then led by the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM). But today’s pampered and fattened military seems to relish revisiting history, which is repeating itself today. For a while, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana had his own voice on the West Philippine Sea row, threatening the Chinese with military force if it did not stop its intrusions and provocations.
The Senate probe on massive corruption on the overpricing and misuse of anti-COVID funds, which President Duterte has unabashedly defended, along with an International Criminal Court (ICC) declaration to conduct a full-dress investigation on the EJKs, may have reduced the confidence of the President’s political allies on his power.
Duterte will do everything possible to keep out investigators of the ICC, which has ordered a full investigation of the EJKs and of the Davao Death Squad when he was mayor and vice mayor of the city. The Supreme Court will likely direct immigration officials, the police, or any law-enforcement agency to stand down if ordered by the President to block the entry of ICC probers. The high court has ruled that the ICC has jurisdiction over the thousands of alleged drug rub-outs carried out by the PNP even if the Philippine membership in the ICC had been withdrawn.
Makabayan Party-list Rep Carlos Zarate urged the ICC to conduct the investigations here since it would be difficult for witnesses to travel to the Hague during this time. There is little doubt the government will harass and intimidate families of EJK victims to try to make sure they do not cooperate with the investigation. There are lots of unaccounted number of family members and other witnesses who have mysteriously disappeared since the rampant drug killings started in 2016.
The Commission on Human Rights will certainly have its hands full for its protective ambit on scores of EJK witnesses. And this time, under the no-nonsense and unquestionably upright leadership of Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, the PNP will hopefully cease to be the “oppressors” in the brutal and terribly lopsided drug war.
