Tatay Digong

Truth be told, one dubbed “The Punisher” was brought to the International Criminal Court like mere cargo, a la a criminal caught in flagrante delicto, in a police operation a la a hot pursuit. All legal niceties right in the home front were bypassed as if the guiding Constitution did not matter.

At the point of arrest, a police general declared himself commander on whose order a former president, treated as a John Doe, must abide. The whole scene and scheme caught on cam constituted a “picture-perfect” situation that any court, including the ICC, should first reckon with lest its integrity be seriously challenged.

At the height of the arrest — with the footage flooding the internet — countless overseas Filipino workers throughout the world cried wolf, spontaneously staging street demonstrations and rallies. Back home in many cities as well, Filipinos organized protest marches as an expression of support for former President Rodrigo Duterte who left a lasting legacy with his “war on drugs.” The anti-drug campaign might have gone to excess but it was more the exception than the rule.

DU30’s arrest was self-explanatory of a phenomenon called in public policy parlance “wicked governance” in the police establishment. The police general who trooped to the airport with his cohort of 7,000 uniformed personnel played the role of a “street-level bureaucrat” as if his act came from above, or maybe so.

Threshold “police brutality,” for lack of a better term, accorded a former president is without parallel in other democratic societies, more so beyond the admiration of countries with membership in international conventions or agreements. Zoomed through a legal lens, it reflects clutching to the last straw or flawed heroics by a global body or tribunal professing to set the moral and legal parameters against crimes of the “gravest” nature.

If the ICC, governed by the Rome Statute, will not grant immediate freedom to Du30, whose countrymen so respected and endeared him deeply, it becomes understandable why Filipinos will rise up in judgment against a grand hypocrisy, a double-dealing global forum, a fake vehicle for the promotion of democratic tenets or international law.

With the way all signs of an emotionally driven, rationally guided indignation against government and its flawed governance are presenting themselves, the way forward for this mounting social movement is for FM Jr. to ensure that the “legislature exercises no direct and heavy control over the executive.”

The President ought to be in “full command and control” as cracks in the bureaucracy are too wide to ignore with presidential appointees already jumping ship.

Only a state leader under heavy pressure from a foreign power might overlook how Filipinos here and overseas demonstrate their patriotism and nationalism to fever pitch, wondering how the sitting president most likely failed to preserve the rule of law.

The graphic manner by which the police general spearheaded the arresting team to confront Tatay Digong, an ex-president with a populist legacy, only mirrors the default option law enforcement commonly executed on an ordinary suspect, possibly with more force, abuse, or coercion, even manhandling however unnecessary.

This explains why the police tend to just shoot and kill with impunity at the slightest sign of resistance.

Besides, the police versions when they reach the courts are normally regarded as the gospel truth rather than frowned upon — a sickness inherent and embedded in our criminal justice system. All the cosmetic lies, drowning legalese if you please, that overshadow naked truth should now be swept aside.

A “conspiracy” reportedly hatched by the defense secretary, the interior secretary, and the national security adviser with the President’s imprimatur is taking its toll.

It’s time to undo a “done deal.” To strike a modus vivendi. The justice department cannot profess to be the competent judicial authority without being challenged. The threat of “street-level bureaucracy” in law enforcement should be checked; the police cannot be left to their own device. Key bureaucrats should not be apples that change color when cut. Lastly, the ICC must live up to its mantra.