‘Some incentives – and genuine protection – should be given to cops willing to confess to EJKs or turn as state witnesses.’
SENATE minority floor Leader Koko Pimentel, who chairs the Senate Blue Ribbon subcommittee investigating extra-judicial killings during the administration of former President Duterte, has opposed calls for the former chief executive to be summoned anew, implying the latter may take advantage of his appearance to reverse or deny most of the statements he made during his first appearance before the panel.
From where we sit, summoning Duterte anew will give the panel the chance to seek vindication for his taunts and foul language against several senators the last time. This time, the committee should make a strong stand for parliamentary behavior and discourse and be ready to cite Duterte for contempt, if necessary.
Pimentel said that another Duterte appearance would depend on the set of witnesses summoned to attend the hearing, adding it is essential to hear the testimonies of many others on the brutal conduct of Duterte’s drug war.
Should the former leader be summoned anew, he should be made to explain details on what he claimed during his initial testimony as the “many mistakes” and “some crimes” committed by police operatives. His legal advisers would have to work double-time to ensure against more incriminating statements and try to prevent the “noose tightening around his neck.”
Duterte’s admission that “ I have a death squad” is heavily buttressed by the testimony of a former police officer assigned to the squad and the testimonies of five families of EJK victims.
President Bongbong Marcos should have made All Soul’s Day quite meaningful for the thousands of families who were victims of EJKs by creating a fund for the education of children left behind. Some incentives – and genuine protection – should be given to cops willing to confess to EJKs or turn as state witnesses.
The government should look at how President Paul Kagame of Rwanda brought remarkable peace and reconciliation to his country which was torn apart by the slaughter of 800,000 Tutsis by the majority Hutu tribes.
Kagame, leader of the majority party, the Rwandan Patriotic Front, exercised his courageous and unrelenting political will to institute retributive and restorative justice. The intensely bloody conflict that stemmed from a culture of neighborhood and family killings occurred in 1994 when the world stood in silence, its attention focused instead on the OJ Simpson case and the US midterm elections.
Today, Rwanda is ranked by the World Bank as the fifth most notably improving economy in the world.
Ange Kadame, daughter of the President, wrote the following newspaper article. “Confronted by the horror of our history, we have a choice. We can choose forgiveness or we can surrender to a natural reaction and choose revenge. On an individual level, choosing forgiveness is making a conscious decision to live above unimaginable circumstances.
“Collectively – as a nation choosing to forgive – we are looking at a bigger picture, a brighter and more helpful future for Rwanda. Most importantly, individually, and as a nation, we are choosing to end a vicious cycle of hate.”
