Social media is vibrant with people voicing their outrage. (Although, malevolent forces are actively at work sowing confusion.) The public demands accountability. That’s democracy functioning! The Trillion Peso protest rallies last Sept. 21, and another one being organized on Nov. 30, are vivid demonstrations of people participating in governance.It is lamentable that the senators are taking it negatively.

Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV disclosed in our meeting in Brussels this last weekend that even as the ICC,based in The Hague, has accepted Royina Garma as witness against former president Rodrigo Duterte for crimes against humanity, The Netherlands has denied her request for asylum. The reason: The Netherlands’ policy of denying asylum for seekers who have committed documented crimes, especially those related to violations of human rights.

The former president is indeed in "troubling conditions," not because of what his children are protesting about, but because of the special treatment accorded him, such as the frequent visits by family members, the comforts at the Scheveningen penitentiary and the legal processes on the charges against him, things the thousands of suspected drug users killed under his brutal drug war never had.