It comes funny albeit embarrassing for the senate committee investigating the purported arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of the former and now detained president. The chairperson adamantly insists on her own interpretation of the law and other applicable rules on the matter of the arrest. The invited resource persons, chiefly the team leader of the police arresting force and the justice secretary, had explicated fully well the legal basis. One resource person, a retired supreme court associate justice and member of the framers of the 1987 constitution also explained that the arrest of the former and now detained president was valid and in accordance with law.
But the discussions and opinions of the legal experts who served as resource persons are not in accordance to the understanding of the committee chairperson. There seems to be a considered opinion that the committee chairperson needs affirmation, else, the expert opinions would simply be rejected. The adamant position makes the hearings a mere family drama as the senator would repeatedly question the actions of the justice secretary and the arresting team. The question would lead to the instruction of her brother, the magical president who purportedly allowed the international police to carry out the arrest of the former and now detained president.
The hearings had dragged due to the repetitious cycle in a stubborn desire to find a legal opinion that would match the understanding of the committee chairperson. The adverse opinion to the experts seems not coming as the international criminal court is backed by law and jurisprudence. The arrest was executed after the Philippine government was found to have failed in its obligation to bring the implementors of the bloody war on drugs were not investigated by the authorities. The justice department could not present any report of investigation, much more prosecution of any of the police officers who were suspected of killing hapless innocent citizens tagged as pushers or users of illegal drugs. Records reveal that only two convictions were found by the courts.
The undeniable truth is that the former and now detained president was legally arrested by the International Police (InterPol), airlifted on chartered flight to the Netherlands to face trial for crimes against humanity at the Hague, the seat of the International Criminal Court. In fact, the ICC Panel of Prosecutors and the Panel of Judges had already conducted the pre-trial. It is just annoying that the senate committee chaired by the lady senator had stubbornly insisted on her own understanding of the law, procedure and the circumstance attending the arrest of the former and now detained president.
Her statements had egged the blind followers of the former and now detained president to conduct mass actions and cry for the return to the country of their idol. International lawyers are united in their opinion that the chance of the ICC allowing the release from prison and the return to the country of their idol is next to impossible. Even the actions of the impeached vice president who like her father is a lawyer did not prosper. After thiese skirmishes and brouhaha, the recognized live-in partner of the former and now detained president issued a statement calling the efforts of the lady senator as mere pa ek ek.
comments to alellema@yahoo.com
