By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
The on-going dilemma of FPRRD at the International Criminal Court had caused deep polarization in our society. One is either in the white corner or in the black corner.
Only those who are blissfully unaware of the news can be considered neutral. Good for them.
The charge: a crime against humanity lodged against the former president.
I diligently followed the entire proceedings of the case. Without any iota of a doubt, it will make a very good basis of a blockbuster movie, sans biases by script writers or eccentricities of directors.
When the story got into the hearing stage to determine whether the FPRRD trial should proceed to trial or not, things became a bit brutal. To my estimation, the prosecution did better during the proceedings. Its summary presentation of the case against FPRRD was quite thorough that those who had missed the relevant news reports when they were freshly presented in both the broadcast and print media could have been won over.
The prosecution panel presented, among others, numerous clips of the former chief executive of his recurring kill, kill, kill narrative in front of national media and picked up by the international media.
Those who are pro-Duterte thought otherwise; that the defense dismantled every bit of the prosecutors’ charges against FPRRD. It dismissed the kill, kill, kill pronouncements of the former president as merely rhetoric without factual basis. It was just part of the colorful language of the former chief executive
The result is further polarization of our population. It had spawned some sort of confusing signals. Bad for our economy. Not good for our fight for human rights.
While FPRRD admitted that he resorted to EJKs, his supporters are clinging to the idea that such is necessary to prevent destruction of our youths, of our country. FPRRD himself clearly espoused that when he said, “I will kill you when you destroy my country.”
The local social media is flooded with posts for and against FPRRD. This in itself, is destroying all of us as a nation. We do not need this. We are inflicting the damage to ourselves.
What happened earlier are already water under the bridge. Whether we like it or not, EJKs were done. Deep in our hearts, whether we are pro-Duterte or not, we know that due process should be the norm, not summary judgment. Every high schooler had been taught that no person charged with any crime is not a criminal unless proven otherwise by any competent court of law.
It would then be wise for all of us to take stock of our emotional countenance. That we wait for the law to grind and take its course. We can show our disgust or support to FPRRD in a controlled manner.
The ICC is peopled by competent judges, carefully and meticulously selected from around the world. Maybe we can show our outburst when they, by a quirk of unfairness, really blatantly show biasness in their decisions. To insist now that ICC has no jurisdiction over the case of Duterte is useless.
After three days of the hearings, one could perceive that the ICC judges had not shown partiality in the case, based on their stoic and very serious faces shown on TV. Unless they are good actors and actresses, which I think they are not.
The whole ICC proceedings against FPRRD is now complicated by the impeachment of VP Sara which is on-going at the House of Representatives.
Whatever happens will cut deep in our consciousness. But the nation needs healing, and it should start now. We should fervently pray that judges will decide based on the merits of the case(s). We should prepare ourselves for any positive or negative result and accept accordingly. That is the only way to prevent a chaotic aftermath of the judges’ decision for a possible trial, or no more trail following. Reacting otherwise will show that we are immature individuals to the outside world.
Accountability, as maybe determined, should be respected. Let us not think of any political fairy tale. No color should be dominantly shown by any group. Blue, red, yellow and white should only be the colors to be shown – but in harmony with each other- just like in our flag.
Healing should start in the heart of each of us.**
