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Lawfare Under Duterte: Columnists
Lawfare Under Duterte: Columnists
GET REAL
Lawfare under
Duterte
By: Solita Collas-Monsod - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:06 AM February 22, 2020
The first time I came across the word “lawfare” was when I
read Justice Antonio Carpio’s book “The South China Sea
Dispute: Philippine Sovereign Rights and Jurisdiction in the
West Philippine Sea.” He used it to describe what the
Philippines was doing to protect itself in the dispute with China.
Engaging in lawfare, rather than warfare. The Philippines
brought suit against China in the Permanent Court of
Arbitration in The Hague and we won an outstanding victory.
But President Duterte, his critics claim, has been misusing the
law to achieve his objectives which are personal in nature.
Where has he misused the law?
Let us start with Sen. Leila de Lima. Why start with her?
Because, Reader, De Lima has been deprived of her liberty for
1,094 days. For what? The real reason is that she had crossed
President Duterte (or so he thought).
Even the Supreme Court seemed confused with what she was
charged with—some justices thought she was charged with
illegal drug trading, others thought that it was conspiracy to
trade in illegal drugs—but they still went along.
If you are following her case, you will have noted that the
prosecution’s case is falling apart: One prosecution witness
(Gen. Benjamin Magalong, former chief of the Criminal
Investigation and Detection Group) totally belied another
prosecution witness (former Bureau of Corrections chief Rafael
Ragos), saying that the latter was the one “extorting and
receiving payola from high-profile inmates.” Ragos was
formerly coaccused with De Lima, became a prosecution
witness and was reinstalled in the National Bureau of
Investigation as a reward, in spite of the formal protest of the
NBI.
There are other cases: Maria Ressa, former chief justice Maria
Lourdes Sereno, Sister Patricia Fox. They are all women, and
they all, at one time or another, crossed President Duterte (or so
he thought). Ressa had several warrants of arrest served against
her, not to mention the 11 cases brought against her. Sereno lost
her position due to a totally misapplied quo warranto case. Fox
was forced to leave the Philippines.
The most recent cases are the sedition charges against 36
personalities (including the Vice President and four bishops) in
connection with the “Bikoy” videos accusing the President’s
family of being involved in drugs. Bikoy’s charges were never
investigated, but the 36 were. The charges have been reduced to
“conspiracy to commit sedition” and only 11 of the original 36
have been charged, including former senator Antonio Trillanes
IV. This is the second attempt to bring Trillanes down, the first
being the resurrection of long dead charges against him.
Trillanes crossed the President, too (or so he thought).
—————-
solita_monsod@yahoo.com
Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/127533/lawfare-under-duterte#ixzz6EfYor6fg
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Turning the law
into a weapon
By: John Nery - @jnery_newsstand
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:07 AM February 18, 2020
But it wasn’t just the corruption of the police; it was also the
capture of the judiciary, starting with the Supreme Court. The
incumbent chief justice was the ponente of the cursed,
incoherent decision to allow the burial of the remains of the
late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the National Heroes’
Cemetery in 2016; on hindsight, we can understand that
decision as an audition piece, for the high honor of chief
justiceship. But the Duterte Court disgraced itself in many other
ways: the illogical decisions to allow martial law in all of
Mindanao, even though the government’s chief lawyer could
not definitively state what additional legal effects martial rule
would allow; the ouster of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno,
an impeachable official, not through impeachment but through
an absurd quo warranto proceeding; and so on, ad nauseam.
But it wasn’t just the courts; it was also the reshaping of the
culture that permeates the administration of justice in the
Philippines. When the President of the Philippines pronounces
on national television that (to give only one of many
unfortunate examples) the police can kill anyone and he will
protect them no matter what, the nation’s capacity to create and
maintain a durable system of accountability and justice
becomes corroded, then brittle, and then, finally, ready to
collapse.
From a nation of martyrs, we are turning into a country of
killers.
***
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COLUMNISTS
KRIS-CROSSING MINDANAO
The unusual
power of Jose
Calida
By: Antonio Montalvan II - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 04:06 AM February 17, 2020
Back then in Davao City’s legal orbits that included among
others “Fiscal Rody,” he was known as “Attorney Joe.” When
Rodrigo Duterte ran for president in 2016, Jose Calida was
tapped as one of Mr. Duterte’s campaign managers (but for
Alyansang Duterte-Bongbong). “If Duterte’s slogan is ‘build,
build, build,’ mine is ‘win, win, win,’” he once said.So how is he
winning as solicitor general, the “law firm” of the Republic? If
the Commission on Audit’s (COA) constant flagging of his excess
allowances since 2016 is any indication, Jose Calida must be one
who wears many hats for his boss.
For the record, COA had also flagged previous solicitor generals
Francis Jardeleza (2012) and Florin Hilbay (2016), but none
were as serial as Calida’s. A note to readers: a “red flag” in audit
parlance is a warning suggesting a potential problem or threat
in the use of public funds.
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Since COA had made public its Rosa database in 2009, the
solicitor general had never made it to the Top 20 highest paid
government officials. Calida is the first; he is a winner, after all.
For a man tasked to run after Mr. Duterte’s pet peeves, Calida is
a dogged lieutenant. Consider the names in this record: Leni
Robredo, Maria Lourdes Sereno, Antonio Trillanes IV, Leila de
Lima, Rappler, and now ABS-CBN. It was also Calida who
recommended the acquittal of pork barrel scam queen Janet
Napoles in a serious illegal detention case. Yet we wonder how
he cannot outpace the 1,069,856 cases of backlog his office has
amassed.
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He says he is the “tribune of the people.” But the last word that
styles him comes from the journalist, British Chevening scholar,
and Nieman journalism fellow of Harvard, Glenda Gloria: “The
man is certainly earning his keep.”
“The President stood there today saying more powerful and hardhitting words than
expletives. More than anything else - HE STOOD THERE FOR US AGAINST
POWERFUL SECTORS which Business INVOLVE MILLIONS and BILLIONS - Making
himself VULNERABLE and a MOVING TARGET for PEOPLE who ONLY CARE
ABOUT THEIR OWN INTERESTS,” Sigue said.
From the moment Duterte pressed for the end of contractual employment, he made a
stand for the people against illegal labor contractors.
Duterte also made a stand against big time drug groups in China and major telco
companies in the Philippines.
From rice cartels, abusive mining companies, unfair hospital schemes, and major multi-
national companies, Duterte made a resounding resolve to support the welfare of the
poor, the small to medium enterprises, and the marginalized.
The President vowed to sign and implement the Bangsamoro Organic Law in response
to the pressing need of Muslim brothers and sisters to gain true and lasting peace, and
in this way Duterte stood for Mindanao.
The fact that he forwarded free college tuition in state universities and public schools is
a concrete result of his goal to provide free, accessible quality education for all sectors
of society.
Sigue underscored how Duterte also attacked fixers and corrupt officials in the
government.
All this resolve, Sigue concludes, will surely make Duterte gain powerful enemies who
will attempt to topple down his administration.
And so, Sigue asks, who else to defend the President against selfish interests of the
oligarchs?
He stood for the middle class who can only earn a few
thousands every month and say they can keep more
savings because they will be exempt from income tax but
for those whose luxury extend to so many vices - taxes
will be up
We can all hate this old guy all we want for his lack of
refinement, his biases, his inconsistencies, his craziness,
his senility - but today, he stood up for us.
“I think what it says about us now is that we are waking up to the excesses
and shameless rot inside mainstream media that relentlessly portrays the
President as brutal--murderous even-- dictatorial, uncaring,” Badoy wrote in
a Facebook post.
The Communication Undersecretary pointed out that while traditional media
focuses on negative news about the President, the people have shown 88%
approval and 87% trust as seen in the recent Pulse Survey.
The President shines through with his genuine service to the Filipino people,
and Badoy opines that the public finally trusts itself enough to make this
assessment instead of relying on the manufactured information flashed on
screen.
She noted how the recent Pulse Survey showed that of those who approve of
and trust the President, 91% of them are millennials, followed by those ages
65 and up.
While critics have been busy parading “No to Martial Law” in supposed
representation of a collective sentiment in Mindanao, the surveys have
dispelled this illusion once more because the Pulse Survey further showed
that 99% of Mindanao approve of and trust the President.
Badoy retorted the Martial Law critics by saying that Mindanao, the very
place where this law is enforced, trusts the President enough and knows he
is not a “power-hungry dictator” that the mainstream media and dissenters
make him out to be.
If there’s anything that the surveys show the Filipinos that mainstream
media does not, it’s that the country is “solid and united”, as Badoy
describes it.
That 88%
I put one and one together and I think that like a couple
remodeling their home, we take the inconveniences and
the added costs and are excited for the beautiful country
we are rebuilding.
President Rodrigo Duterte (Photo from Manila Bulletin)
And you know all this noise that continually paints a grim
picture of the President and our country?
Turns out it is MANUFACTURED noise.
FAKE. Like fake news.
With malicious intent.
The Filipino see him clearly. They see his heart, his mind,
his soul.
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