The American humorist Mark Twain once said that it is not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog. What’s unfolding now on the world stage at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has both the drama and spectacle of exactly like that.
In the starring role are the undaunted Filipino lawyers leading the cause for thousands of victims, estimated to be between 6,000 to 30,000 lives lost or, more correctly .wasted, by a former PHIlippine president’s bloody drug war for which is he is deemed accountable.
The Filipino lawyers fighting for the cause of victims are not at all discouraged by the “size” of their counterparts in the defense team. fFive foreigners, internationally known , vetted by no less than the Philippine vice president and the daughter of the suspect, and who boast of strong , impressive resumes. Undeniably, intimidation is part of the legal strategy of the defense team.
Note the initial bravado: the former leader who has caused so much polarization of Philippine politics, is made to believe that his acquittal is certain if not imminent. Such a fearless forecast has the ring of prophecy from the defense lawyers.
What the Filipino lawyers have shown so far and thus far, thank you, before the ICC, the Philippines and the world is the size of the fight in them to win the case on the war on humanity against an unrepenting former Philippine president for the sake of thousands of underdog in Philippine society.
No doubt, the Pinoy lawyers are just as competitive , if not better. It seems, given their legal capabilities and undisputed conviction about their cause, not to mention the fairness of the ICC, the Filipino counsel are in it to win it. Justice for the Filipino underdog is their ultimate objective.
These no-nonsense and passionate lawyers exemplify what another former Philippine president had expressly wished and vowed : those who have less in life should have more law. President Ramon Magsaysay is thus famously remembered as the President of the poor or common man.
The strategy of the defense team is to hit at the victims’ social jugular: their identity as such. Restricting their IDs could be a first step in limiting their participation in the trial, which has yet to start. The Filipino lawyers have read their intention well. TheY convinced the ICC that that legal ploy is tantamount to double injustice.
The ICC has already given hope to many that those who have less in life, like IDs and passports, will have more in law like a new rule that can produce the barest minimum to show the world that the victims of extrajudicial killing (EJK) or their surviving relatives are real people, not simply are product of statistics or political imagination
The imminent trial of a former president almost didn’t happen for political reason. The incumbent president, who successfully teamed up with the incumbent vice president to win the 2020 elections, earlier ruled out any ICC probe or arrest against the his predecessor.
By stroke of fate, the much-ballyhoed withdrawal from the ICC and a working treaty with the Interpol have confluenced a controversial decision that gave way to the arrest and delivery of the former president to the ICC. NO cry of kidnapping or denial of due process have undone what has been done by a Philippine government: to let the international law dictate on what’s is purely domestic and political. The Supreme Court has yet to rule on the former president’s children petition to undo what is described historically aberrant. The consensus, however, is that it is beyond recall.
What is clearer now is that the former president may have to stay longer in the ICC custody, at least for another six months pending the confirming of the charge of crime against inhumanity in autumn. Perhaps, even much longer, according to the Filipino lawyers. The future could even be worse.
The certainty of the former president’s fate is slowly shaping up by the relentless effort and skills of the Filipinos lawyers displaying their level of intelligence, patriotism and courage in an enviable audacity and flair. The nation’s national hero, Jose rizal, may have prefigured that in his essay “ The Philippines A Century Hence”.
Unfortunately, and sadly, it required a leader’s tyranny and cruelty to the poor and marginalized– those at the “laylayan” as often described by former vice president Leni Robredo, to show what is and who is truly patriotic, before a modern world.
What’s taking place at the ICC may not yet directly impact the political melee of the midterm elections, even its questionable values.t It will help shape up the contours and mishappened routes of Philippine politics in 2028 and beyond.
It should be an exciting prospect and a joyful one. It should be like another EDSA Peaceful Revolution of 1986 when the world saluted the Philippines in admiration and AWE. Intuitively, there may be a divine reason ,beyond mere politics, why President BONG BONG Marcos has removed the EDSA February celebration from the national calendar of holidays. May be a bigger event, a big=bang like, game changer, is going to replace it. Things happen for a reason, according to philosophers. God sees the truth and waits, wrote the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.
In the meantime, lets rally behind the Filipino lawyers working their brains and butts out at The Hague so that the law will finally render justice to thousands of EJK victims of a tyrants’s drug war. And perhaps more. Life is like a box chocolates, said Forrest Gump.
