I agree with Digong; He should be tried here.
I have been following the Duterte hearings at both the House and the Senate, like many. Like many, I have been reading threads on news sites, ruminating on each comment for or against Duterte, curious how so many—family, friends, acquaintances, colleagues at work---can seem unfazed or indifferent to the summary killings of so many.
I watched as Rodrigo Duterte sat in a room within touching distance from many of the families of the casualties of his drug war and I saw no hint of remorse.
He says he did it because it needed to be done. And he believes and means every word. It. Had. To. Be. Done.
File a case if you believe the killings were wrong, Duterte says. He says he should stand trial here and not in the ICC. Let the Filipino people judge me, he says.
And I agree with Duterte: he should stand trial before and among the Filipino people. We, in whose name the killings were perpetrated, should listen and weigh his and his lieutenants’ motives and actions and decide: are they right or wrong?
We need to do this ourselves because letting the ICC do it is a shortcut, a cop-out, and an age-old bad habit of letting others decide our fate.
And letting others push and pull our load has embedded deep into our psyche as individuals and as a people.
As children we were taught not to listen and take part in meaningful, adult conversations because, well, children know no better. Parents, especially fathers’ pronouncements were the law, enforced strictly and with the absolute certainty of harsh punishment when broken. Sometimes we were unjustly and unfairly beaten—with slippers, clothes hangers, leather belts, or sticks but we were told never to question authority and to never ever look the law in the eye when spoken to.
Of course there were many ways around the law. Through discarte, we got to outwit authority and slip out side to play. And we learned to get what we want through good discarte—that extra candy, time away from chores, even that good grade at a school quiz. We just had to have good discarte. Good discarte enabled us to get the desired results with any means at our disposal.
The condition, of timidity in the face of unfairness and of surreptitiously taking short-cuts to skirt authority and accountability, ingrained in us since childhood, is often reinforced in adulthood. Using connections to avoid long lines—discarte. Landing a good job through a relative—discarte. A politician robbing us blind? Never mind at baka ma red-tag pa.
This has been the crux of the matter with Duterte. Many of us look at Duterte and see someone employing discarte as a method to solve , or so he says, the problem of illegal drugs. A violent discarte but discarte nevertheless. Duterte himself admits when asked by his inquisitors, the end justifies his means.
Never mind the appalling number of the dead. Most all of them were “other” Filipinos anyway. Save for a smattering, most all of them were indios, not illustrados like you and me. Because make no mistake, we are two peoples, not one. Two peoples separated by opportunities. With different realities, living in distinct worlds since the Spanish colonization. And for the longest time, we have been two peoples unable, or unwilling, to craft a common reality and self-actualize as one.
So when Duterte says, imperiously, to try him here, I say we should. Give him and his ilk their trial here. As illustrados, each and every one of those indio deaths were in our name.
We all need to see with our own eyes, listen with our own ears, and grasp with our own minds all the details of each and every killing done in our name. We all need to smell and taste the blood on our hands. The blood of the other Filipinos. Change may then come, just as change came for the Germans after facing the horrors unleashed by the Nazis in their name.
So try him here. Because it is not possible for us all be tried at the ICC. Not possible at all.
JB R. Deveza
