Friday, April 19, 2024
Admittedly, the rule of law in the Philippines is weak. Kung makakalusot, lulusot. And why not? If the law is not applied equally to all, why should Juan or Juana dela Cruz follow it? “Catch me if you can” seems to be the attitude of many Filipinos who are wont to disobey a simple traffic rule, the payment of correct taxes and a host of other laws. But does this mean that Filipinos do not want the rule of law? If the historic win of now President Rodrigo Roa Duterte is any indication, Filipinos are sick and tired of the laws not being followed. They want change. And they want the laws observed. That is why 16 million Filipinos catapulted DU30 to the presidency in a historic and phenomenal win. Three months into the presidency, it is still too early to say whether the Philippines now has a strong rule of law that will transform it from “Third World to First.” Majority of Filipinos are optimistic though. Ninety-one percent of Filipinos trust that the President will indeed bring the Philippines to a better place.
There’s one wrinkle, however. The fight against illegal drugs, which is the centerpiece of the Duterte administration, shows two opposing faces: one face shows strict adherence to the law against drugs, regardless of the person’s stature – general, congressman, mayor, judge or an ordinary citizen; the other face shows disregard of the due process of law where drug suspects are killed without giving them their day in court. Our policemen and other law enforcers enjoy the presumption of regularity in the performance of their official functions and the President, who enjoys immunity from suit, has made himself clear that it is only in extreme situations where the life of the arresting officer is jeopardized, or put in peril, that he/she should shoot back at the suspect. The President has also put to task our law enforcers and ordered the dismissal of erring and abusive policemen. Hence, it will not be correct to attribute the extrajudicial killings of drug suspects to the police authorities and to the President without giving them any opportunity to explain their side. They, too, are entitled to the due process of law.
The police have presented data in the Senate investigation on extrajudicial killings that out of the more than 3,000 deaths (still rising), only about half of them were committed by police authorities where the suspects opened fire at them. They attribute the big part of the killings to drug cartels. This looks logical after the relentless fight of the administration against drugs that will result, if it has not resulted yet, in the loss of billions of dollars to these drug cartels. That is a big loss. An assassin or a mercenary is always readily available to kill for as low as P5,000.00 to P10,000.00. Do the math. In the meantime, lives are lost.
The rule of law will be here to stay in the Philippines if both the suspect and the accuser are given their day in court before they are judged “by the lawful judgment of [their]peers” or according to “the law of the land,” as enshrined in Article 39 of the Magna Carta and in Section 1, Article III of the Bill of Rights of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, which states: “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the law.” Until then, a strong rule of law remains an ideal that all Filipinos should strive for.
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Rowena Nieves A. Tan is an alumna of Harvard Kennedy School of Government and is the Presiding Judge of the Regional Trial Court, Branch 118 of Pasay City (Metro Manila).
This story was originally published by The Manila Times, Philippines