Holy Innocents Day: Summary Executions of Children

If King Herod were alive today, he would surely be summoned by the International Court of Justice for committing the most despicable and shocking massacres of innocent children, as testified to by a number of competent and reliable witnesses, as told in the Gospel of St Matthew, Chapter 2, verses 16 to 18. And, unlike the Philippines, Israel would have surrendered him to the international court. The Philippines refuses to, however. Let us examine the facts and the law as well.

The Philippines, a Catholic, democratic and independent republic, does not submit itself to a foreign court.  The Philippines is sovereign and its courts are working well. That is according to the gospels of three well-recognized legal luminaries in the Philippine Senate: Senators Padilla, Bato de la Rosa and Jinggoy Estrada, the Three Wise Men from the East. The honorable Robinhood Padilla, a popularly recognized constitutionalist and well-chosen by the Senate President himself to be the eminent Chairman of the elite Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendments, strongly submits that we should not give up our much cherished independence and sovereignty by bowing to the legal impositions of foreign courts. He was chosen over and above topnotch lawyers Chiz Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano, and Sonny Angara.

We should believe Senator Padilla because he speaks with authority and he has been anointed by the senate president to occupy the hallowed seat of the revered legal icon, Senator Claro M. Recto. Senator Padilla has the very strategic and far-reaching authority and function to overhaul the fundamental law of the land which includes  the Bill of Rights, the definition of our National Territory, the Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Basic Policies and the Structures of Government, including the Legislative, the Executive and the Judiciary. Since the good senator already said that we should not allow the International Criminal Court to assume jurisdiction, we should listen and believe him. Moreover, Padilla's legal opinion was seconded by a famous icon of law and order and human rights, Senator Bato. We are just innocent children and we cannot even hold a candle before these luminaries of law.

Speaking of innocent children, Jemboy Baltazar who was summarily executed in Navotas was still a child at age 16 or 17, as defined by Philippine laws. He did not commit any crime. He was merely doing a legal act of cleaning a fishing boat. He did not carry any weapon. He did not possess any drug or illegal firearm. He did not pose any threat to the police. He was peacefully trying to earn a living and to live up to the dreams of his OFW mother working in the Middle East. Without any provocation, six policemen pumped a barrage of bullets using high-powered firearms on the hapless body of such an innocent child. And what was the reason: Simple- Mistaken Identity. And we do not submit to any international scrutiny because we are a nation independent, sovereign and defended by competent policemen whose only mission is to defend the peace and order of the people and the sovereignty of the State.

How many children perished during the so-called Drug War of the Duterte regime? How many innocents were snatched in the dark of the night and were never seen nor heard again? How many parents lost their children in the name of protecting the people from the menace of drugs? How many homes lost their kids to many masked killers who just trespassed dwellings without warrants and extra-judicially administered justice? If the vice president were to be believed, should we blame the courts, the prosecutors and the defense counsels for justices being delayed pushing law enforcers or their assets and minions to summarily put suspects to rest in peace, in the greater interest of the greater number?

Today, the Day of the Holy Innocents, we need to deeply reflect on our values and character as a people, as a nation and as a government. Does anyone of us have authority to administer justice through the barrel of the gun or the blades of our knives and swords? And our courts and tribunals as well as institutions too, you are all being assessed and will most probably be found wanting.  You allow the murder of innocents because you are not doing your jobs according to your oaths.

Of course, there are still many honest and courageous magistrates who dared to acquit Senator De Lima and Maria Reza even under a regime that does not respect the International Criminal Court. But the really honest and good ones are too few and too afraid too. And so, evil continues to triumph because most good men persist in doing nothing.

We are all innocent children gripped by too much fear, real or imagined, and others are being eaten up by a rotten system dominated by the corrupt and the greedy incompetents. Meanwhile, we are being governed by honorable men like Senators Padilla, Bato and Jinggoy Estrada. To borrow Shakespeare for the nth time: "The fault, my dear Brutus is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings" translate that to mean:

The punishment for the cowards is to be ruled by domineering nincompoops. Happy Innocents' Day. Let us, at least for a day, hide under the security mantle of feigned innocence, yes, let us pretend, we are children again.