Aren't we all sick and tired of the hypocrisy of former president Benigno "PNoy" Aquino III's often repeated mantra daang matuwid which was rebuffed by the election of President Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte last May when he won his presidential bid against the huge machinery of the Liberal Party which had a complete slate from Aparri to Jolo. While the Liberal Party is but a shell of its old powerful self, we can still see the face of Senator Leila De Lima for she is the face of daang matuwid. The face of hypocrisy!
Last week when Duterte exposed her immorality with her driver whom he also accused of having links with the illegal drug trade, De Lima appealed to the President not to be personal in his attacks and shaming her publicly so as to be able to maintain her dignity. But as people say, all is fair in love and war and we are at war!
This is the wonder of internet technology today. What was printed years ago remains in a "cloud" to be retrieved later. Indeed, I was able to pick up an article dated July 23, 2013 by Mark Merueñas of GMA News, which I am reprinting her so you can make your own comments about this.
"Justice Secretary Leila de Lima found nothing wrong with President Benigno Aquino III publicly berating officials of three government agencies during his State of the Nation Address (SONA). In his speech, Aquino blasted the Bureau of Immigration, Bureau of Customs, and the National Irrigation Authority, saying corrupt officials in these agencies have "makapal na mukha. Tama lang iyong isa publiko ni Presidente iyong kanyang frustration at galit sa mga ahensiya na iyon na nasa negative list," De Lima said on Tuesday.,
"Tama lang iyong 'naming and shaming' kasi mukhang hindi nga sila natatablan kahit nagfa-file tayo ng mga kaso, mayroong mga administratively charged, mayroon din mga criminally charged," she added. De Lima noted even if penalties had been handed down on some officials, corruption remains in these government agencies."
These are from the very words of then justice secretary de Lima when she ruled for six-long years.
Now the tables have turned on her and she is in the hot seat and suddenly, she is making an appeal for sobriety so as to spare the innocent. So stop condemning Duterte and face the music like a woman! The least we should see is for De Lima to either tell the whole damn truth or stay silent instead of attending the Senate hearing on the extrajudicial killings, as if she was the only senator concerned about those killings.
Meanwhile, in his Facebook page, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano put a colored graph to depict the year and average daily deaths since the 2010 to January to June 2016 and on July to August 2016. That graph shows that the year 2013 had the highest rate of people killed at 16,160 murders/homicide or 44 deaths per day. That graph also shows that for January to June 2016, there were 5,491 murders/homicides or a total of 30 per day, while the record for July-August 2016, there were 681 murders/homicides or 20 deaths per day.
So the first question to ask is,what did the Aquino regime, of which De Lima was then secretary of justice do to stop those extrajudicial killings? Second question, as the party in power at that time, what did the LP do to investigate those killings? It's clear, they did nothing. In fact, these are records that we didn't see in those days simply because the Aquino regime was deep into propaganda and did not want the Filipino people to criticize the President for doing nothing about the killings.
At least during the second day of the Senate hearing, Philippine National Police Police Chief Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa came out strong in answering the questions thrown at the police. He even gave the Senators a complete run down of the murders that happened since May 2016. But then on the other hand, why are we having these Senate hearings to start with? Elections are already over and the reason for grandstanding is gone.
There could only be one reason, for the Senate investigation, because the United Nations Commission on Human Rights has condemned the killings, which I suspect they collated only via news reports. Department of Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay told the media that there is a protocol for such UN Commissions to follow and they did not follow it. But then Duterte was adamant, asking those who accuse him to come over to the Philippines and in front of the international media present evidence against him.
So what do you think will come out of that Senate investigation? Nothing! Not even in aid of legislation has the Senate come up with laws that stem from such hearings. In my book, the Senate has outlived its usefulness. This is why I am four square for changing the constitution and installing a parliamentary-federal type of governance that will do away with the old ways of a Senate that just can't get their acts together to build a better nation. So the Senate should decide whether they are with the Filipino people in this war against drugs?Or are they against it? The ball is in their court.