Photo courtesy: ICC
The biggest blunder of the present administration is to arrest and handover former President Rodrigo R. Duterte to the Interpol which shanghaied him all the way to the Hague, Netherlands where he is now detained on the charge of crime against humanity.
Weighing it against what the rabid anti-Duterte are charging him with, it would take an ace hypnotist to make the International Criminal Court judges to believe the numbers conjured by the complainants.
In the preliminary trial the Court charged him for the killing of 43 victims. It also alleged torture and rape. It will be interesting to hear how the judges will prove Duterte committed crimes against humanity.
Obviously the Court must have dismissed outright allegations perpetrated by Nobel Prize awardee Maria Ressa and former Human Rights Commission Chairperson Liela De Lima that 30,000 people were extra-judicially murdered by a Davao Death Squad they attributed to Duterte.
If there is anything I wanted to watch is a trial scene were Maria Ressa and Liela De Lima are called to the witness stand. I cannot imagine how Maria will behave before the judges if asked to prove where the 30,000 EJK victims can be located. I do not know how the judges will react when Maria explains why and how she receives 90 rape threats every minute. And maybe she might be asked to explain where her statement, “ the Philippines is worse than any country at war” came from and why she relished to live in the country when in fact she is an American citizen.
In the case of De Lima, it will be interesting to listen to her discourse and prove where in the Philippines the 30,000 EJK victims she had been crowing about can be found. It is an indubitable fact that she had been ranting about it when she was CHR Chair, during her term as Secretary of Justice and as Senator. All these spanning a period of more than 20 years but have yet to come up with a single piece of evidence.
What of putschist Antonio Trillanes who once wired the entire Glorietta with explosives in his insane attempt to take control of the government? Already he is shaking by his knees over the possibility that he will be summoned as witness. He is now telling us that what he can only show the Court is a bank statement to prove FPRRD and VP Sara Duterte have millions in bank deposit, an allegation which the bank he cited certified that the statement is fake. Trillanes too with all probability be asked what was his participation in the video “Ang totoong Narco-list” featuring Peter Joemel Advincula alias “Bikoy”who linked the entire Duterte family in drug trade . Advincula was later found guilty of perjury.
Summing these up, we understand why the assigned lawyer of FPRRD is confident of early acquittal of the President.
By the way, VP Sara conveyed to friends that Tatay Digong is okay and is looking forward to his return to the City Hall. That will put an end to speculations and wishful thinking of his political adversaries both in the mayoral race in Davao City and in the senate race where his PDP-Laban bets have now leaped-frog to being frontrunners.
