Justice must be meted

OF COURSE, due process must be followed, but the courts must ensure that those who would be found violating the laws must be punished to its full extent.

On February 11, the Regional Trial Court in Bislig City, Surigao del Sur issued warrants of arrest against officials of the Kapa (Kabus Padatuon)- Community Ministry International, led by its president and founder Joel A. Apolinario, for violating the Securities Regulation Code.

The cases stemmed from the investigation conducted by the Department of Justice, the agency that accused the group of “willfully, unlawfully, and criminally” selling and offering securities even without the needed approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In Tagum City, Davao del Norte, there was a report that the Regional Trial Court granted the petition of King Paul Auditor, the reported chief executive officer of Rigen Marketing who was among those who were accused of syndicated estafa for allegedly collecting investments with the promise of huge returns to investors. Auditor was the only one arrested among those accused.

There is no reason for this paper to comment on the facts of the two cases as this would result in sub judice. However, there are lessons that can be learned from both.

In both cases, the supposed victims were those who were looking for huge profits that could be had in a very short time. Some of them knew the risks of such undertakings, while others were unwittingly lured to these schemes despite the continued warnings from government agencies.

Problem is, those who knew so little about these kinds of schemes either played deaf to the warnings, or worse, the warnings never reached them.

In both cases, justice must be served and those guilty must be punished. They must not be blinded by the glitter of new coins because there is no assurance that they, or their kin, would not fall to the same schemes in the future, if they have not.

Also, punishing the guilty is the best way to teach the people, those who have the scheming minds or those who always falls for schemes.