ON THE JUNKING OF THE TRUTH COMMISSION BY THE PHILIPPINE SUPREME COURT
STATEMENT OF
THE NATIONAL UNION OF PEOPLE's LAWYERS
NUPL-Iloilo Statement
All is not lost yet with the Supreme Court ruling on December 6,2010 declaring Executive Order No. 1 that created the Truth Commission formed by P-Noy as “unconstitutional”. The President can proceed with what he has to do without such body.
However, as lawyers, we are saddened by that decision. In that regard, the SC misses another opportunity to redeem its name earlier tarnished when it stopped the Congress from performing its Constitutional mandate of impeaching Ombudsman Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez, an impeachable public officer closely linked to the disgraced Arroyo regime, on mere technicality.
That and its latest move of declaring as unconstitutional the truth commission might have temporarily blocked the new administration and the Filipino people from exacting justice from former President, now Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and her cabal for their heinous crimes of plundering the country and violating human rights, notably extra-judicial killings that claimed 1,200 victims and enforced disappearances that reached 200 plus cases from 2001 through June 2010.
Only a handful benefited from the twin decisions – that is, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself and her clique notwithstanding that the pain and injustice they inflicted on the Filipino people for nine years cry out to the heavens for vengeance.
We are not yet ready to join Fr. Joaquin Bernas, SJ, professorat the Ateneo College of Law, who brands the current composition of the High Tribunal “Arroyo Court”. However, we are concerned because, the same highest court of the land has pulled off yet another controversial decision exonerating one member caught red handed lifting paragraphs from a treatise of an international jurist without proper attribution, that prompted our colleagues in the profession at the UP Law Center to publicly denounce the same as an act of plagiarism. Instead of investigating and meting proper action on a member, majority at the High Court decided to throw the monkey wrench on the UP professors who blew the whistle.
We equally deplore the P-Noy government’s lack of enthusiasm to assert the Filipino people’s demand for justice, notably, in investigating the cases of plunder and human rights violations done by the past administration. Let it be said that P-Noy has full control of both houses of Congress, aside from the executive departments like the DND, DILG, DA, DAR and other agencies.
There is no need in fact to form the truth commission which appears to have been created by P-Noy all for show.
The departments mentioned above can furnish the President vital documents and damning evidences to the plunder cases and other mayhem inflicted on the people by the Arroyo administration. For example, P-Noy need not stray far to gather evidences on the P700 million fertilizer scam, the botched bribery in the $300 million NBN-ZTE deal. All he needs is to order investigators to sift through the files of the Department of Agriculture.
P-Noy doesn’t need a truth commission to solve the more than 1,200 cases of extra-judicial killings and 200 plus enforced disappearances. The DND and instrumentalities have in their records damning data of thievery and crimes done in the name of counter-insurgency. Further, the Department of Justice has the human and material resources to dig into the above stated facts, file criminal complaints and prosecute them without need from Ombudsman Gutierrez, the protector of Arroyo and her gang, whom the High Court saved from impeachment.
December 10, 2010
SGD. ATTY. JOSHUA ALIM
President, NUPL-Iloilo
Reference:
Atty. Pet Melliza
Public Information Officer
Cel. # 0929-1550-472
THE NATIONAL UNION OF PEOPLE's LAWYERS
NUPL-Iloilo Statement
All is not lost yet with the Supreme Court ruling on December 6,2010 declaring Executive Order No. 1 that created the Truth Commission formed by P-Noy as “unconstitutional”. The President can proceed with what he has to do without such body.
However, as lawyers, we are saddened by that decision. In that regard, the SC misses another opportunity to redeem its name earlier tarnished when it stopped the Congress from performing its Constitutional mandate of impeaching Ombudsman Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez, an impeachable public officer closely linked to the disgraced Arroyo regime, on mere technicality.
That and its latest move of declaring as unconstitutional the truth commission might have temporarily blocked the new administration and the Filipino people from exacting justice from former President, now Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and her cabal for their heinous crimes of plundering the country and violating human rights, notably extra-judicial killings that claimed 1,200 victims and enforced disappearances that reached 200 plus cases from 2001 through June 2010.
Only a handful benefited from the twin decisions – that is, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo herself and her clique notwithstanding that the pain and injustice they inflicted on the Filipino people for nine years cry out to the heavens for vengeance.
We are not yet ready to join Fr. Joaquin Bernas, SJ, professorat the Ateneo College of Law, who brands the current composition of the High Tribunal “Arroyo Court”. However, we are concerned because, the same highest court of the land has pulled off yet another controversial decision exonerating one member caught red handed lifting paragraphs from a treatise of an international jurist without proper attribution, that prompted our colleagues in the profession at the UP Law Center to publicly denounce the same as an act of plagiarism. Instead of investigating and meting proper action on a member, majority at the High Court decided to throw the monkey wrench on the UP professors who blew the whistle.
We equally deplore the P-Noy government’s lack of enthusiasm to assert the Filipino people’s demand for justice, notably, in investigating the cases of plunder and human rights violations done by the past administration. Let it be said that P-Noy has full control of both houses of Congress, aside from the executive departments like the DND, DILG, DA, DAR and other agencies.
There is no need in fact to form the truth commission which appears to have been created by P-Noy all for show.
The departments mentioned above can furnish the President vital documents and damning evidences to the plunder cases and other mayhem inflicted on the people by the Arroyo administration. For example, P-Noy need not stray far to gather evidences on the P700 million fertilizer scam, the botched bribery in the $300 million NBN-ZTE deal. All he needs is to order investigators to sift through the files of the Department of Agriculture.
P-Noy doesn’t need a truth commission to solve the more than 1,200 cases of extra-judicial killings and 200 plus enforced disappearances. The DND and instrumentalities have in their records damning data of thievery and crimes done in the name of counter-insurgency. Further, the Department of Justice has the human and material resources to dig into the above stated facts, file criminal complaints and prosecute them without need from Ombudsman Gutierrez, the protector of Arroyo and her gang, whom the High Court saved from impeachment.
December 10, 2010
SGD. ATTY. JOSHUA ALIM
President, NUPL-Iloilo
Reference:
Atty. Pet Melliza
Public Information Officer
Cel. # 0929-1550-472
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