Who says there is separation of the Church and the State in the Philippines?
We are starting to feel it is more of a fallacy. Look, in a program over Net 25, the spokesman of the influential Iglesia ni Cristo religion, its spokesperson Edwil Zabala asserted that Filipinos “should be tried in local courts instead of surrendering its sovereignty to foreign entities.”
Without doubt Zabala was referring to the arrest of former President Rodrigo R. Duterte by the Interpol implementing a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Insisting that our courts are capable of dispensing justice at all times, all the more that we should not have “surrendered our sovereignty to others.”
We assume that when Zabala made his remarks in the television channel he was referring to the Philippine courts being still very much functional and can very well handle the cases filed against the former President.
Unfortunately, those who filed the case against the former Philippine leader preferred to bring their case in the ICC. And possibly, with all the evidence submitted by the complainants, the ICC admitted the charge of crime against humanity filed against the former President.
Still, the INC insisted that it would have been more appropriate if the case was filed in the local court. But the complainant led by then Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, and former senator Laila De Lima who was jailed for more than seven years starting during the term of the former President, opted to have the case filed with the ICC, perhaps believing that they cannot get what is due them and the families of the victims of the former President’s bloody war on drugs.
The INC however seemingly did not see this aspect in the Duterte arrest and subsequent turnover to the ICC. Hence the sect’s call which they did through supposed rallies and now through the statement of the sect’s spokesperson on it television channel.
Meanwhile Sen. Bong Go called the open chastising by the INC of the way the administration handled the former President’s apprehension and turnover to the ICC, as a “firm and principled stance amid the political turbulence.”
Yet, it is our take that when the religious group made it an “institutional” position to support the former President in spite of their true motive efectively veiled with their stand to “uphold the rule of law” and call for “peace and unity,” still the sect’s stand cannot be mistaken as not interfering with the affairs innate for the government alone.
We can only hope that the INC’s top leadership realizes this soonest and make “innovation” to avoid possible unwanted repercussions.
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Based on claims of vloggers posted on Facebook, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in Davao City sent a delegation to Netherlands to join a mass rally of Filipinos to manifest strongly their support to the jailed former President. The rally participants were not only from Filipinos in the Netherlands but also from neighboring European countries.
Well, if indeed it is true that there was a delegation from the MNLF Davao Chapter, who could have funded the cost of their travel to that European country? It the delegation members funded their trip by themselves then the coffers of the Muslim rebel group must be awash with cash that they can afford to travel to such distant land.
And the possibility that the former rebel group has still a lot of unspent money is not remote. The Muslim rebels have no more major activities undertaken against the government. So the funds reserved for such anti-government activities could be lying idle for some time already.
Now they would want to show support to the man who they believed might have contributed immensely to the cessation of the Muslim insurrection. So the MNLF leadership in the city might have found it worthy of spending some excess funds to join a rally for him in faraway Netherlands?
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We think that the Nograleses’ continued silence on the arrest and handover of former President Duterte to the ICC is so far the best move they have taken.
Yes, it is our take that anything they say about the fate of the Davaoeno former chief executive and Mayoralty candidate for Davao City will open avenues for the Dutertes to convert their statements into a strong issue against them – meaning Mayoralty bet Karlo and first district congressional candidate Migz.
For now the overly anti-administration residents of Davao City are concentrating their political volleys at the national administration leaders who they think conspired against the former top Philippine official. So, the Nograles sibling are literally spared from the vicious political attacks of the pro-Duterte Davao residents.
So, keeping their mouths shut could only be the best option to take if they want to remain free of attacks from the Duterte camp.
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