Political noise?

Over the past few weeks, the House quad comm hearings have taken the nature of a Netflix miniseries. The revelations were not shocking in the sense that they did not surprise us. We suspected as much all the while but we are now getting confirmation from some of the key people involved. Good thing the UniTeam broke up or all these would have remained secrets.

A female police officer said to be rather close to Duterte was singing like a canary during the hearings. In tears, she revealed how Duterte asked her to get a PNP officer affiliated with INC to establish a system replicating Davao’s anti-drug war.

That includes what she claimed was a reward system for every kill a police officer makes.

She has profited greatly from her close relationship with Duterte, which includes being appointed general manager of the sweepstakes office.

One wonders what made her turn around and confirm our worst suspicions about the extra judicial killings of the past administration. Her sworn statement condemns her as much as Duterte.

Given that she was an active participant, no one can just dismiss her sworn testimony. She had an insider’s view. She most likely has more to share to help us put the pieces together and come to a conclusion that would satisfy us as much as a well written Netflix series would. But right now, it is still what we would describe as “bitin.”

The senators running for reelection implicated in the hearings have been trying to minimize the damage of the revelations. They want us to believe these are all political noise. Senator Go even accused the congressmen conducting the hearing of being ungrateful to Duterte after receiving so many political benefits in the past. Sen. Bato, who was implicated by another witness, gave the lady police officer a run for her tears. Our political scene is mostly theater. That’s probably why so many washed-up and jobless showbiz types are running for senator.

Who can cry the best to convince us they are being truthful? What is the end game after the congressional hearings wind down? Are all these a prelude to the Marcos administration asking the ICC to step in and help us clear up our mess? The Executive Secretary just said the position against cooperating with the ICC still stands. For how long?

This battle between the two political dynasties isn’t likely to end in a whimper, given all that has been said so far. There can’t be any turning back. It is possible that the shadow of an ICC case will be kept hanging for as long as that is politically useful for the administration.

The logical conclusion should involve the ICC for the people to get the satisfaction of a good Netflix ending. Since the ICC has problems getting accused personalities arrested, no one is going to The Hague unless BBM feels he is left with no other choice.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague is a permanent global court that has the power to prosecute individuals and leaders for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. It is supposed to be the world community’s means of bringing to justice those accused of crimes against humanity. It is a court of last resort, intervening only when national authorities cannot or will not prosecute.

Those who joined the treaty creating it, including the Philippines, did so thinking that they themselves are able to prosecute all the crimes that it covers - otherwise the court may intervene. Most of the cases now being handled by the ICC involve genocide committed by a number of African strongmen/dictators.

Recently, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova. They were accused of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children to Russia during Mr. Putin’s invasion of the country.

The prosecutor of the ICC has also recently applied for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defense chief and three Hamas leaders over alleged war crimes.

If ever, Duterte will be the first case involving extra judicial killings in an anti-drug war. That seems highly unlikely because that will pose a significant political disturbance we don’t need. What we will have in the next weeks and months is more political noise. Depending on the election results, the ICC option may be shelved for good.

On second thought, having the ICC resolve the Duterte EJK cases is not a bad idea. It is almost impossible for our judicial system to handle such a case with a result we can all believe. Our political and judicial systems are so intertwined that outcomes can be easily influenced. Only an independent body in faraway Europe can give the justice sought by the families of victims. The ability of the nation to move on after the truth had been determined and justice delivered is also an important benefit of ICC involvement. But that’s not how our political dramas end.

The political noise will just get louder and louder with most of our people not really caring one way or the other. We just want to be fascinated by the stories unfolding at the quad comm, feeling momentarily bad after learning how our tax money was used to finance an outrageous criminal operation.

When it all ends, the PNP must conduct a serious public house cleaning. The lady police officer’s revelations confirmed our worst suspicions about the PNP having a parallel criminal organization.

The PNP Academy must do a better job of training future police officers on moral values. PNP officers must be able to distinguish right from wrong and make the proper choices. The key officers mentioned in the revelations are PNPA alumni turned murderers. It will take a while and a lot of effort to win back the public’s trust.

Boo Chanco’s email address is [email protected]. Follow him on X @boochanco.