Mister ‘Consistent’

So now it’s Senator Alan Peter Cayetano talking about due process.

Following reports that the International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Cayetano issued a statement declaring that “every Filipino, whether senator or citizen, deserves equal treatment and the full measure of due process.”

A noble sentiment, indeed, but coming from Cayetano, it can’t help but raise a few eyebrows.

Let’s remember who it is we’re talking about. This is the same Alan Peter Cayetano who once stood shoulder to shoulder with Rodrigo Duterte as his running mate, and later as his Foreign Secretary, and who in this capacity, became the global spokesman for the bloody “war on drugs.”

It was Cayetano who told the world, with a straight face, that the thousands of killings under Duterte were “the necessary price to preserve and protect the human rights of all Filipinos.” That’s right. Killing people, he said, was for the protection of human rights. Even Orwell would have blushed at the audacity.

Now, years later, Cayetano has suddenly discovered a passion for fairness and restraint.

“Justice must never be used to settle political scores,” he insists. A fine principle, if only he had remembered it when his old boss weaponized the justice system against then Senator Leila de Lima. While De Lima languished in detention for seven long years on trumped-up, baseless charges, Cayetano said nothing. No appeals for due process, no calls for fairness. Not even a whisper of sympathy.

Apparently, in Cayetano’s moral universe, due process applies only to his political friends. When ordinary Filipinos were being shot dead in alleys, mistaken for drug suspects, it was “necessary.” When journalists and human rights groups exposed the scale of the killings, he accused them of peddling lies. But now that the ICC is coming after his allies — Duterte, Dela Rosa, the architects of that murderous campaign — suddenly he’s a born-again believer in human rights.

To be fair, Cayetano has actually been remarkably consistent. Not in his defense of due process, certainly not, but in his subservience to Duterte. Whether it was whitewashing the drug war abroad or now pleading for compassion for the men who oversaw it, Cayetano has always known which side his bread is buttered on. His latest statement isn’t about fairness or principle; it’s about protecting the political faction he’s never quite left.

He talks of “equal treatment,” but where was that concern when thousands of nameless Filipinos were gunned down without trial? He now wants comfort for Duterte — even suggesting “house arrest” — while the families of the dead still wait for justice.

He champions the rights of a senator who enjoys wealth, influence, and an army of lawyers, while the poor victims of the drug war got only a bullet, a body bag, and a dismissive “eh, nanlaban.”

So no, Senator Cayetano, this newfound crusade for due process isn’t fooling anyone. The world remembers who defended the slaughter, who mocked the victims, and who stayed silent when justice truly demanded a voice.

So yeah, he’s always been consistent — just never on the side of the thousands who were actually victimized.