Another arrest warrant has been issued by a Pasig City Court for the arrest of Pastor Apollo C. Quiboloy for a non-bailable crime. And the local law enforcement units are again committing to high heavens to serve the warrant on the fugitive religious leader.
It’s been weeks now since several tracker teams organized for the purpose of locating the whereabouts of the Pastor. Still the teams have not been successful in their mission. In other words they could not locate the Pastor and the warrant earlier issued by a Davao City-based court is still in the hands of the law enforcers. Even the warrant for Quiboloy on a contempt charge by the Senate is still unserved for the same reason. The Pastor cannot be found.
Now comes this latest arrest order. Will this suffer the same fate as those earlier-issued warrants? From the looks of it, the likelihood is evident.
How come? Is it because as the “appointed Son of God” the religious leader has the power to disappear when the lawmen come around his hiding place? We would not be surprised if one day the government will utilize several battalions to comb the entire Davao City or the entire Davao Region just to arrest the elusive Pastor.
Again, if Pastor Quiboloy, by the Grace of his Father, continues to remain in hiding, what will happen to his religious sect? Who will keep the Church organization and its properties that include a school, an unfinished huge arena, buildings, a radio and television stations, and many others? Is the disintegration process now slowly starting?
Of course up until Pastor Quiboloy went into hiding, personally we did not have even an iota of doubt that he could have done all the crimes that he is now facing. But then, he dodged the law instead of facing squarely the charges against him. We could not help but start thinking of the line that “flight is an indication of guilt.” And this thought could be entertained not just by us personally but by several others.
We can only hope that the Reverend Pastor who is an acquaintance of ours will prove us and the others wrong in that particular aspect of an accused’s flight.
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The self-proclaimed “nationalists” among us Filipinos have been insisting that the government should do everything within its power to have the decision of the Arbitral Tribunal granting the Philippines territorial rights over the West Philippine Sea and the islands thereat, must be executed and accepted by China. The latter is the other claimant who believes that by its having extended its dominion in that body of water since time immemorial, it is the historical rightful sovereign owner of the territory.
But was there really a real arbitration? It is common knowledge that in an arbitration process both or all the parties must agree to all procedures and that they or their representatives must attend in all proceedings.
In the case of the West Philippine Sea dispute China did not agree to the arbitration. Therefore it is likely that it also did not send any representative/s to the arbitration hearings.
As the entire world knows, the Arbitral Court ruled in favor of the Philippines possible largely because of China’s non-participation in the process.
The problem however, is that the Arbitral Tribunal does not have the power to execute its judgment in order to force the losing entity to submit to its ruling. It does not even have the power to ask the United Nations to form a body to demand the losing party/ies in the arbitration to submit to the tribunal’s decision.
Meaning, the burden of enforcing the ruling of the Arbitral Court falls on the shoulder of the winning party. In the West Philippine Sea dispute, it is up to the Philippines how to make China comply with the Arbitration ruling.
So what is happening to our government’s win in the arbitration with China is one big and hollow award like that bottomless sinkhole in Yemen.
And the award-giving body that is the Arbitral Tribunal? Well, as in the premises of its creation, it is totally powerless to have its ruling executed. It is only making the Philippines like that tiny tail trying to wag the giant dog that is China.
Now the Philippines has to build alliances with as many nations possible – nations that could be putting up double faces as these countries are also large trading partners of China.
Our Philippines? Well, our country could just be one convenient pawn for the powerful nations to push for their own interest.
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