In the world of the damned of the disinformation-driven Duterte Diehard Supporters, the majesty of the law is left as convenience.
Let us go back to recent times to illustrate this.
In July 2019, the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police under Rodrigo Duterte filed criminal complaints of sedition, inciting to sedition, cyber libel, libel, estafa, and harboring a criminal/obstruction of justice against Vice President Leni Robredo.
The government obviously wanted an epic case of 37 other respondents with big names such as senators and former senators Leila de Lima, Risa Hontiveros, Antonio Trillanes IV, Bam Aquino. Also named respondents were prominent Catholic bishops Archbishop Soc Villegas, Pablo Cardinal David, Honesto Ongtioco, Teodoro Bacani.
There were priests as well: Albert Alejo and Robert Reyes. The list was a veritable who’s who of voices that reverberated against the extrajudicial killings of the Duterte regime. And that, was probably their mistake in Rodrigo Duterte’s mind of chaos: these were names of critics against his killing sprees.
A preposterous case was thus fabricated. The allegation was that Vice President Robredo and all these people conspired in August 2018 to link Duterte to the illegal drugs trade. The plan was codenamed Project Sodoma, and as per the PNP script, was hatched in the Jesuit Communications of Ateneo de Manila University.
The output was a series of videos called Ang Totoong Narcolist that featured a hooded whistleblower with the alias Bikoy. Bikoy claimed that presidential son Paolo Duterte, son in-law Manases Carpio, and Duterte utility runner Bong Go were high stakes players in a narcotics underworld they controlled. At that time, these accusations were not new.
Bikoy presented the drug syndicate’s internal documents that had dates of transactions, the code names of the principal players, their bank accounts and the deposits made. The principals signed at the bottom of the documents. One code name was POLO DELTA TSG01, believed to have been Paolo Duterte.
Duterte who said My god I hate drugs did not, however, order extrajudicial killings against his son, son in-law and utility runner. Instead, he turned the tables and blamed Leni Robredo and the 37 others for the videos.
On May 6, 2019, a man named Peter Joemel Advincula surfaced and said he was Bikoy. He surrendered to the PNP on May 23 and tagged former senator Antonio Trillanes and the Liberal Party as the producers and scriptwriters of the narco videos against the Duterte family. The PNP chief then was Oscar Albayalde, today charged with Duterte in the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
Meantime, Leni Robredo, the sitting vice president accused of non-bailable crimes, did not hide, glare at the cameras, or grimace against the public. She showed up voluntarily at the Department of Justice to submit her counter-affidavit. Accused by Bikoy of having participated in the clandestine meetings at Ateneo de Manila on March 4, the veep countered:
“. . . that she was nowhere near Ateneo on March 4 as she was in Bulacan for the entire day. As part of her evidence, she presented her itineraries, pictures, and affidavits of the people who were with her on March 4.”
That alone spoke much of the PNP case: it was perjurious. Yet Robredo submitted herself before the law. “Show us the evidence,” she countered. Her lawyer filed a motion for production and copying of evidence at the DOJ
The majesty of the law is invoked when it suits Duterte. In July 2019, when the cases were filed against Robredo et al, Duterte’s justice secretary Menardo Guevarra pronounced that “Unlike Duterte, Robredo does not have constitutional immunity.”
Today there is no more majesty of the law. There is only politicization of the law for partisan demagoguery.
Salvador Panelo: “Does the immunity from suit extend to the vice president (Sara Duterte)? A resounding yes!”
Vic Rodriguez: “Sara enjoys immunity from criminal prosecution during her incumbency.”
The law bends for the Dutertes. There is no rule of law.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
