Intentionally ill-timed

THE right to sue is inherent. Anyone can file a case against someone before any tribunal or court. But proving it is another story. Some may do it for the sake of filing a case or to embarrass or get back at another.

The case that the lawyer of confessed hit man Edgar Matobato filed against President Duterte before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for alleged mass murder was intended solely to mortify the president. It’s foul!

The timing of the filing of the complaint is obvious. Our country chairs this year’s Asean Summit in Manila. With Asean heads of state attending, Atty. Jude Sabio’s complaint will get attention. While admittedly the number of casualties in President Duterte’s passionate war against illegal drugs is increasing, this does not constitute “mass murder.”

The killings, according to the police, were justified. As to who would answer for the deaths done by so-called “vigilantes” that the police classify as “DUI” (death under investigation), it’s the PNP hierarchy for its lackadaisical attitude towards the “vigilantes.”

I’m no expert in international law, but I doubt if this case against Duterte would prosper. Legal experts say that before going to ICC, the complainant has to explore first available legal remedies in the country. President Duterte could just brush aside this case. But it already puts our country in utter bad light. ••• The luck of Police Supt. Maria Cristina Nobleza and her boyfriend Renierlo Dongon, an Abu Sayyaf bomb expert, ended when they were flagged down at a Bohol checkpoint but sped away leading to a chase. The arrest of Nobleza and Dongon led the police to investigate and find bombmaking items inside an apartment in Looc, Panglao that they rented the week the Abus entered Bohol via the Inabanga river.

It would have been a disaster in Panglao, where an Asean meeting was held, had Nobleza and Dongon set off the bombs. God is really good, all the time.

But isn’t it funny that the military intelligence knew that the Abu Sayyaf on the run carried P5 million, yet they failed to notice that Nobleza and Dongon were already in Panglao, Bohol?

I think the military intelligence provided this information so the barrio folks would be obliged to report sightings of the terrorists or encourage mercenaries to run after the remaining Abus.