True justice

Former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, the staunch critic of President Duterte, who has been fairly silent for months in his attacks against his prime enemy, has suddenly found his strident voice again with his latest claim that the wheels of justice for the victims of extrajudicial killings (EJK) due to Duterte’s drug war has gone into motion. He stated that the International Criminal Court (ICC) will be done with its prosecutor’s preliminary examination of Duterte and his allies by next year.

The ex-senator claimed that the drug-related killings had gone beyond 10,000 as tallied, with Trillanes pointing to both the local and international human rights groups that merely echo the number of alleged drug kills of the local groups that has been grossly exaggerated.

Trillanes crowed: “Justice is coming. To the members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) who have been a part of the EJK, you would have to make a decision on whether you would fall with Duterte on being liable for crimes against humanity, or you would partly cleanse your crime by being a witness for the ICC prosecutors.”

Who does Trillanes think he is to give such a guarantee, especially since he has a record of having failed every time in his ouster moves?

Not one of them can even give out all the names of those allegedly killed extrajudicially by the police. Once, the same critics of Duterte even pegged the number of the alleged victims of the drug war to hit 20,000. So, what happened to the 10,000 or more victims claimed earlier by these same local and international human rights groups, who even go as far as claiming that such are crimes against humanity? They all disappeared just like that?

Trillanes is clearly trying to get the police and, no doubt, the military to turn against Duterte. Once he is out of the presidential office, they become ICC witnesses, as the ex-senator even went to the extent of warning the PNP that, “As Duterte steps down from office in just a little over two years, he will not be able to protect you. In fact, even Duterte won’t be able to protect himself,” he said.

Does Trillanes truly think that the police and even the military would heed his call to turn against Duterte? And does the discredited and failed coup leader truly believe that his call will move them to go against their commander-in-chief?

What Trillanes seems to forget is that his coached and perjured accusers, one of whom is Jude Sabio, his onetime lawyer, who filed a complaint at the ICC, have already denounced him and have even bared the dirty tricks of their former client in trying to get Duterte ousted to the point of their perjuring themselves before the Senate hearings.

And just where are the other claimed witnesses who perjured themselves and who have been known to skip town and hide themselves abroad, especially as these same witnesses were found to have been engaged in criminal activities?

The reality is that no matter what the ICC says and does, nothing can be done by way of enforcing whatever negative ruling it will issue should the ICC prosecutor go ahead with her case, fed to her by the usual yellows, Reds and the unholy whites.

These investigators will not be allowed to come and investigate whatever it is they think they should be investigating. They will definitely be barred from entering the Philippines.

And what makes Trillanes and the salivating yellows think that by 2022 it will all be over with Duterte out of office, and that it would then be their time to be in power and position?

By the time 2022 comes around, it is unlikely that a yellow standard bearer will get the presidential vote, going by the failure of the yellow bets who went under the banner of Otso Diretso to even land in any of the senatorial seats.

And if Sara Duterte decides to run and win, nobody but nobody, whether it be the ICC or Trillanes, can do anything. Besides, rules of complimentary will be violated by the ICC.

As for Trillanes, justice is coming for him in 2022 — oh, and detained Senator-until-2022 Leila de Lima, too. Justice will come in the form of Trillanes and De Lima losing a rerun of their senatorial posts.

And that indeed would be true justice meted by the Filipino people!

“And what makes Trillanes and the salivating yellows think that by 2022 it will all be over with Duterte out of office, and that it would then be their time to be in power and position?

“He

is clearly trying to get the police and, no doubt, the military to turn against Duterte.