‘The whole world is witnessing the deepening travails of the former leader of our country, now in jail and facing trial at an international court…’
FORMER President Rodrigo Duterte did not exempt God from his foul tirades, insulting Him woefully with such words as stupid. Many knew that God would not let that go unanswered and had marked Duterte for a day of reckoning.
Many people, including celebrities, took the name of God in vain quite irresponsibly, demeaning it, and most of them met a tragic end. One of them was John Lennon of the Beatles, who stated publicly with bristling sarcasm, “Who is Jesus Christ?” and boasted that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus Christ. We know what happened to Lennon in New York’s Central Park.
The whole world is witnessing the deepening travails of the former leader of our country, now in jail and facing trial at an international court for “crimes against humanity.” No other Philippine president has experienced such worldwide humiliation and notoriety.
Duterte, who is unable to subdue the demons inside him, even likened himself to the bloodthirsty Hitler by announcing that if the latter had killed millions of Jews, he was ready to slaughter three million drug addicts in his own country.
Sen. Bato dela Rosa does not belong to the select group of real men in uniform who have bravely faced accountability for their criminal offenses. He has stated that he would rather hide than face the ordeal of arrest and trial before the ICC, although he initially said that he was willing to join his former boss, Duterte, in detention at the Hague. He has shrugged off any sense of dignity by seriously considering evading arrest, which Malacanang calls a bad example coming from a former PNP chief who should be man enough to face the ICC. Many PNP officers claim that Dela Rosa was just being consistent with the objectionable character of most leaders of the national police.
The culture of criminal impunity commanded by Duterte and advanced and pursued quite well by police units and vigilantes has overcome any moral or spiritual value in his life. Dela Rosa should not wait for several police officers to redeem themselves in the brutal drug war to come out and testify against him.
The last thing on President Bongbong Marcos’ mind is to have Duterte back in the country. He and his officials are aware of the socio-political consequences of Duterte being reunited with thousands of his followers who do not think much of the thousands of murders he committed against his fellow Filipinos. Malacanang should also recognize the actual fears of thousands of EJK families against possible violent reprisals from a still influential Duterte.
The government is not doing enough to provide them with regular psychological counselling and other assistance due to the despairing trauma and profound grief that they still endure to this day. Research has shown that most of the surviving spouses and children of EJKs have practically “withdrawn” from society, not wanting to be reminded of the sorrow of the tragic death of their loved ones and the anguished aftermath of justice eluding them.
Duterte would be practically “invisible” in Mindanao if and when he is granted an interim release by the ICC, and no one from the PNP or the AFP will be able to bundle him up again to be brought back to the Hague. The local elections will be affected by his presence, especially in the Visayas and Mindanao, where he is blindly and dismayingly portrayed as a hero.
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A notable figure in American history, Charles Colson, who repeatedly denied Christ, ultimately rediscovered Him while in prison. He was a special legal adviser to President Richard Nixon and was deeply involved in the Watergate scandal and the cover-up that followed. He confessed to the crime after surrendering his life to Christ one night in his driveway.
It was a very emotional and transformative moment when he could not understand why he was weeping while talking to God. Behind bars for ten years, Colson would soon found the largest Christian prison fellowship in the world. What a redemption, indeed!
