Poor EU Parliament

When will some countries in Europe ever realize that the world has long moved on and that their former colonies have since become independent and whose rights as sovereign states must be respected, even by their former colonizers? The question is asked because the European Union Parliament apparently thinks it can dictate on the affairs of other countries that happen to be on the other side of the world and are in no way under any EU jurisdiction.

Just days ago the EU Parliament approved a resolution that fell just short of demanding, among other things, for the Philippines to halt its anti-illegal drugs war, and to free detained senator Leila de Lima, who is facing illegal drug charges. Just who does the EU Parliament think it is? And just what the heck is it trying to prove?

The anti-illegal drugs war of the Philippines is a legitimate law enforcement campaign of a sovereign state. How it conducts official activities within the confines of its own borders is its own business. The EU Parliament cannot dictate on the Philippines how it conducts its own campaigns. Europe is not exactly a paragon of good governance and there are many European nations that deserve more focus and intervention by the EU Parliament, it should not go looking for trouble elsewhere.

To be sure, there have been a lot of casualties in the Philippine anti-illegal drug war. But the Philippine government has been transparent about this. It has admitted to more than 4,000 deaths. But the EU Parliament insists on a number that is three times the official count. Where the heck did the EU Parliament get its figures? Not having set foot in the Philippines, it must have gotten its numbers from critics within the Philippines, making these numbers tainted and unreliable.

And for a supposedly democratic assembly of European Union parliamentarians, the EU Parliament certainly does not live up to that characterization. Imagine asking the Philippines to free de Lima who is facing illegal drug charges? On what basis is it making the demand? Does it think the Philippine judicial system owes the EU Parliament any explanation?

For all its bitching about what is happening in the Philippines, it appears that the EU Parliament isn't even fully aware of what is going on. Just a few days before it had the nerve to vote and approve its meddlesome resolution, no less than the Philippine Supreme Court upheld the legality and validity of the arrest and detention of de Lima.

If it does not even read the news to know that the highest court in the Philippines has already determined that the arrest and detention of de Lima was legal, how can anyone trust the EU Parliament to even validate its allegation that each of the 12,000 plus deaths it claims resulted from the Philippine drug war is truly due to extrajudicial killings.

The problem with the EU Parliament is that it not only shoots from the hip, it also shoots without basis. It claims 12,000 plus deaths from the Philippine drug war, but does it even have the names of each one of the victims to at least prove that every single case has been properly vetted? But of course not. Because all that the EU Parliament did was pluck a number from thin air and assumed that it being the EU Parliament, its name alone will lend it credence, even if it spews s..t.

‘The problem with the EU Parliament is that it not only shoots from the hip, it also

shoots without basis.’