WHEN MORAL POSTURING MEANS NOTHING BUT PARTISAN POLITICS

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The Senate passed a resolution urging the International Criminal Court to put President Rodrigo Duterte under house arrest in a country that would agree to the conditions set by its Pre-trial Chamber. Was the basis of the senators who voted in favor of the senate resolution simply asking for compassion? It goes beyond that. The request is rooted on a fundamental legal principle. It is a violation of the right to due process of the accused if the same is tried when in fact one is no longer fit to fully understand the legal proceedings. 

The above is a matter that the ICC will determine through its experts who will look into the health condition of the former President before the ICC decides whether there's merit to the granting of the prayer for the interim release of the former leader due to poor health. It's up to the ICC whether it will grant the petition, not the critics of the former President. But there's something more than what meets the eye. The issue runs deep into our political culture. It's about that moral divide between the elites and the people that President Duterte fought for. 

What we are witnessing is a lingering wound that has created that chasm between Manila and Mindanao, the Tagalogs and the Bisaya, or as what the September 21 protests showed, the Pro-BBM, pro-Leni, and pro-Duterte. There was no Filipino on that day. There was no country that was trying to fight corruption and finally put an end to the suffering of its people. There were only partisan political interests. In the end, the ones who are in positions of power took advantage of this lack of unity. No real goal was actually achieved. 

In fact, the enemies of the former President do not care about the fact that the ICC is an instrument of Western domination. The ICC does not only lack legal jurisdiction, it is also highly questionable that a charge involving 42 alleged summary executions constitutes a "crime against humanity". The Nuremberg Trials was precisely established to try Nazi war criminals. The court only needed a new term to describe the greatest atrocities committed by men to their fellow human beings. Hitler killed or ordered the killing of six million Jews. Joseph Stalin actually killed more of his fellow Russians. 

The problem of some people is that they have already prejudged President Duterte even before the confirmation of charges has commenced at the International Criminal Court. Critics like Kiko Pangilinan use loaded terms like "oppressor" or "murderer" to make it sound like a man was out there to destroy a country and its people in the same manner as Benjamin Netanyahu when the war on drugs was against criminals and many lawless elements, all meant to protect good citizens like most Duterte critics think they are.

Risa, Bam and Kiko voting against the senate resolution only means that they cannot rise above their partisan political interests. They don't even see the fact that the ICC infringes on Philippine sovereignty. The case against President Duterte can be tried here. We have a fully functional justice system, the same justice system that has tried PGMA and Pres. Joseph Estrada, and exonerated Leila De Lima. While the three can hide behind the cloak of their moral posturing, they can't deny that they belong to the elite and they speak for the elites in Philippine society.

- Christopher Ryan Maboloc 

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