“The handwriting is already on the wall” First there was the filing of an impeachment complaint by the House of Representatives against Vice President
First there was the filing of an impeachment complaint by the House of Representatives against Vice President Sara Duterte in December last year that was sent in February to the Senate for trial. Then, early this month, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant of arrest for former president Rodrigo Duterte for crimes against humanity, leading to his hurried extradition to The Hague to stand trial.
How will this double whammy against the Duterte political clan affect their political fortunes? Will the first lead to the removal from the vice presidency of Sara Duterte and put an end to her fond wish to take over Malacañang in 2028? And will the second result in the conviction of the elder Duterte to a long prison term in an ICC member-country and an ignominious end to his long political career marked by controversy and hammer blows on democratic processes? In both instances, supporters of the Duterte clan claim the current administration has been persecuting the father and daughter to prevent them from further occupying any public office and eliminate them completely from the political landscape. But the administration insists that the legal moves against father-and-daughter team are intended solely to make them accountable for high crimes. The Senate impeachment trial of VP Sara and the ICC trial of Rodrigo Duterte are firsts in the nation’s history. Sara will be the first sitting VP to be impeached or sought to be removed from office. If convicted, she can no longer run to any public office during her lifetime. In the case of Mr. Duterte, he could be the first ex-president of the Philippines to be convicted to a long prison in a foreign land and spend his twilight years alone and forlorn as well as beyond the reach of Philippine courts nor the solace of his frothing-in-the mouth supporters. In other words, these are two important steps toward accountability in the Philippine political and legal systems that should go a long way in combating the culture of impunity that has allowed wrongdoing by high public officials to go unpunished. At this point, with the integrity and character of the Duterte dynasty under close scrutiny not only here but also abroad, is it the end of the road for his political clan? That remains to be seen, but the handwriting is already on the wall. Six years of murder and mayhem under Rodrigo Duterte and three years of Sara as Vice-President and Education Secretary have shown that they have failed to live up to their oaths of office and to uphold transparency and accountability in public office. The father must be held accountable for ordering the mass murder of drug users and street-level drug dealers. The daughter must face the music for culpable violation of the Constitution, graft and corruption, and betrayal of public trust.In the six years of the Rodrigo Duterte regime from mid-2016 to mid-2022, the police followed his marching order to the hilt: ‘kill, kill, kill.’ When the dust had settled, some 6,400 had died, the Philippine National Police officially reported, while human rights groups here and abroad estimated that between 25,000and 30,000 had actually died in his bloody war on illegal drugs. Never, we clearly recall, did he tell the cops to respect human rights, nor follow due process. Instead, as he admitted before lawmakers, he even cajoled them to put guns in the hands of drug suspects so the police can claim that the persons they accosted fought back or ‘nanlaban.’ Duterte told human rights groups who had expressed utter disgust over the thousands killed by the police and vigilante groups: “My concern is not human rights, but human lives.” It’s a spurious analogy, even out-and-out balderdash, for what’s clearly cold-blooded murder by those whose basic mission is “to serve and protect.” Now that Mr. Duterte has been hauled off to The Hague to face trial for crimes against humanity, we keep hearing boisterous calls for him to be given due process, and that his human rights be respected. Where were they and why did they keep eerily silent when he unleashed murder and mayhem for six long years?
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