Drilon says Marcos admin should restore Filipino people’s confidence in rule of law
MANILA, Philippines — The administration of president-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. should work to restore the Filipino people's confidence in the justice system and the rule of law, Senate Minority Floor Leader Franklin Drilon said Thursday.
Drilon said this in an interview aired over ABS-CBN News Channel's "Headstart" when asked what key issues the Marcos administration will have to face with the government it will be inheriting from President Rodrigo Duterte.
"That is a challenge. We must restore our people's confidence in the rule of law. These mainly unsolved crimes is because, to my mind, the perception that our justice system isn't working," Drilon said Thursday morning.
"When people take the law into their own hands, it is an indictment of how they perceive our justice system to be," he also said.
Rule of law in the Philippines
In 2021, the Philippines placed 102nd out of 139 countries included in the Rule of Law Index of the World Justice Project, making its rule of law one of the weakest in East Asia and the Pacific region.
The United States Department of State's 2021 Country Report on Human Rights Practices also said recently that "impunity remained" in the Philippines, where they observed unlawful or arbitrary killings carried out by state actors.
An International Criminal Court Registry report also stated that 94 percent of the families and friends of drug war victims want the ICC to look into the Duterte administration's crimes against humanity in the conduct of its so-called war on drugs.
The Duterte administration and its Philippine National Police are facing scrutiny by the international court over their drug war, where official police data acknowledges over 6,100 deaths in official police operations.
Rights groups both here and abroad say the death toll may be as high as 30,000 due to unreported killings.
READ: PNP says 2018 conviction of Kian's murderers proof that 'domestic remedies work'
Other issues
Dillon also said that among the main challenges will be addressing the health system post-coronavirus pandemic.
"The weaknesses of the health system were exposed with the pandemic, with, unfortunately, the mismanagement of health secretary [Francisco] Duque, it has become worse, and it must be addressed," he said.
The senator also cited a report from the World Bank saying that nine out of ten Filipino children aged 10 do not know how to read.
"What will happen to our future generations?...This is very alarming," he said, saying education should be in Marcos' list of priorities. Marcos recently appointed Vice President-elect Sara Duterte-Carpio to head his administration's education department. — Franco Luna
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