ALSA BALUTAN

HUWAG magtaka kung maraming Pinoy ang tuluyang mag-alsa balutan, lumisan, at mamalagi sa ibang bansa. Marami ang hindi natuwa sa pagbabalik na mga Marcos at hindi nila masikmura ang anak ng diktador na maging bagong pangulo. Destinasyon ang Canada, Estados Unidos, New Zealand, Australia, at mga bansa sa Europa.

“Out-migration” ang tawag ng mga taong-agham sa lipunan. Papalabas ng bansa at hindi papasok. Kawalan ng tiwala sa kakayahang mamuno at patakbuhin ang gobyerno ng bansa ang dahilan kung bakit umaalis ang marami. Nagsimulang sa larangan ng negosyo ang kawalan ng tiwala ng mag-alisan ang mga mamumuhunan mula Filipinas nadala=dala ang kanilang puhunan. Walang tiwala ang mga dayuhang negosyante kay BBM.

MAY narinig na kaming banta na mag-aalisan ang Pinoy kung mananalo si BBM. Wala silang nakikitang pag-asa kapag si BBM ang umuugit ng pamahalaan. Kadiliman sa kanila ang dala ni BBM. Marami sa kanila ang nasa panggitnang uri. Sila ang mga nakapag-aral, may mahusay na trabaho, higit sa lahat, may kakayahang pananalapi at kasanayan upang lumisan at mamuhay sa ibang bansa. Nais nilang muling mag-umpisa na maayos na pamumuhay sa ibang bansa.

Kung paano aakitin ni BBM na manatili ng bansa ang mga aalis ay isang malaking katanungan. Tulad ng inaasahan, walang plano si BBM upang pangunahan at paglingkuran ang mga na gitnang uri (middle class). Mas interesado si BBM na ibangon ang kanyang pamilya dahil hindi niya nalilimutan kung paano sila sinipa ng taongbayan sa poder noong 1986. Mabaho ang kanilang pangalan sa kasaysayan. Pinagtatawanan ang mga Marcos sa labas at loob ng bansa.

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HALAW ang mga sumusunod sa aming aklat “KILL KILL KILL: EJKs in the Philippines; Crimes Against Humanity vs. Duterte Et. Al. At the ICC.” Nasa huling yugto na ako na pagsusulat.

The inevitable happened. The testimonies of Matobato and Lascanas were regarded not only revealing but damaging as well by the senators allied with Duterte. Gordon led the pro-Duterte lawmakers to derail the proceedings but not without Gordon’s committee (and his leadership), earning the unpalatable tag of “comite de absuelto (acquittal committee).” The Matobato-Lascanas tandem had provided the one-two punch that confirmed DDS’s official existence as a killing machine in Davao City. They were the insiders, who gave details on the extent of its operations. Their public confessions were part of the opening portion of the information, which lawyer Jude Josue Sabio submitted to the ICC on the 17th of April, 2017.

As originally planned, Trillanes completed the information for submission to the ICC. What his Magdalo colleagues and legislative staff had prepared was reinforced by inputs by Jude Josue Sabio, who was hired as the professional lawyer to represent not only the Matobato-Lascanas team, but the Magdalo as well. The information Sabio submitted to the ICC was the first to have come from the Philippines since the ICC’s existence in 2003. It contained crimes against humanity charges against Rodrigo Duterte and 11 henchmen, who allegedly participated in the bloody but failed antidrug war. The information aptly pointed to “mass murder” as the focal point of the charges of crimes against humanity against Duterte and his henchmen.

Moreover, it narrated that the mass murder was not just mere random acts of violence against certain persons, but a state policy (or” state-sponsored’) led and directed by Duterte himself. Aside from Duterte, the information included then Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre; then Philippine National Police Director General Ronaldo dela Rosa (now a senator); then House of Representatives Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez; and then Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno. It included Solicitor General Jose Calida, Senators Richard Gordon and Alan Peter Cayetano, Police Superintendent Edilberto Leonardo, Senior Police Officer 4 Sanson “Sonny” Buenaventura, Police Superintendent Royina Garma (now head of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office), and National Bureau of Investigation Director Dante Gierran (now head of PhilHealth).

FIRST INFORMATION. The information submitted to the ICC Office of the Prosecutor has claimed that Rodrigo Duterte, as mayor of Davao City, and, later, as president of the Philippines, was engaged in the mass murder of people suspected to have been involved in the use and trade of prohibited drugs. Amplifying its allegations of mass murder, the information said:

“All in all, the ‘repeated, unchanging and continuous’ mass murder being conducted by the President Duterte has already resulted into the deaths of not less than 1,400 individuals in Davao City under his Davao Death Squad and not less than 7,000 individuals in his war on drugs at the national level. In the ultimate analysis, this communication will present a situation for the determination and finding by the International Criminal Court of individual criminal liability or responsibility on the part of Mayor and President Duterte over the continuing commission of mass murder ever since he was the Mayor of Davao City up to the time that he became the President of the Philippines in his war on drugs at the national level.”

The information claimed that, for the interest of international criminal justice, the ICC, through its Office of the Prosecutor, should proceed to conduct a preliminary investigation on the reported mass murder on the basis of the facts laid down by this information and details given by international human rights groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. It raised the possibility to bring the issue to the next step after preliminary investigation, which is formal investigation by the ICC. The first information said:

“This communication will further demonstrate why there is sufficient factual and legal basis for the Office of the Prosecutor to take the following course of action, namely; (1) to CONFIRM with the Pre-Trial Chamber the proper criminal charges for crimes against humanity against President Duterte and his senior administration officials; (2) to APPLY with the Pre-Trial Chamber for the issuance of a Warrant of Arrest against President Duterte and his concerned senior administration officials for his arrest, surrender and detention pending trial at the Detention Facility at the Hague of the International Criminal Court, in order to prevent them from continuing with the commission of mass murder and to prevent them from killing potential victims and witnesses, and (3) to PURSUE with the Pre-Trial Chamber the commitment of President Duterte and his concerned senior administration officials to the Trial Chamber for appropriate trial, and for a conviction and sentence to a prison term or life imprisonment.”

Dwelling on mass murder in the form of extrajudicial killings (EJKs), the information said than 7,000 incidents of drug-related killings took place from July 1, 2016 to January 21, 2017 allegedly perpetrated by police officers and unidentified groups under the direction of President Rodrigo Duterte. According to the information, the mass murder was a continuation on national scale of what had the DDS started when he was mayor of Davao City. It said:

“Based on the testimony of Matobato and Lascañas, it is now established by direct firsthand account that President Duterte is the mastermind and leader of the Davao Death Squad, when he was still the Mayor of Davao City. If it is the best indication, President Duterte happens to be that same leader and mastermind of the Davao Death Squad who is now the President of the Philippines waging, encouraging and promoting the so-called war on drugs at the national level.“