By Gonzalo Duque

 

A lot of events had been unfolding before our eyes during the last few days.

Of course, the latest and biggest is the alleged “kidnapping” of former President Rodrigo Duterte by Philippine authorities led by P/Maj Gen. Nicolas Torre.

Many legal luminaries have started questioning the manner by which the former President was arrested and directly brought to The Hague in the Netherlands.

My classmate in the College of Law, Executive Secretary Bingbong Medialdea accompanied our former President to The Hague as his lawyer.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) had scheduled a pre-trial proceeding last Friday at 2:00 p.m. in the Netherlands (9:00 p.m. Philippine time), with live streaming.

The schedule is before our presstime, but the ICC already announced that the pre-trial conference was intended to inform Duterte of the charges filed against him, his rights under international law, and of other further proceedings regarding the case.

In the meantime, our people are slowly being galvanized into action to register their protest against the actuations of the administration of President BBM.

We can see very clearly now that PBBM did not mean what he earlier said when he assured the Filipino nation that Duterte will not be brought to the ICC because our country has withdrawn from the jurisdiction of that body.

So, what could be possibly the real reason why President Duterte was brought to the ICC against his will?

Legal experts say the trial of Duterte could last for a minimum of eight years. That is enough time for him to be forgotten as a rallying symbol for the Filipino people.

But with the development of the digital media, including social media, it would be hard for the present administration to ignore the call of our people for action, thus the possibility of triggering another People Power Revolution.

From my perspective, what happened to Digong has brought a shock to our country, but once the dust settles down, we will see the cohesive reaction of our people.

And when this happens, all hell will break loose!

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Our friend Atty. Raul Lambino seems to be exuding with confidence. He believes that most of the PDP Laban candidates led by Senator Bong Go will win in the May 12 election.

He may have a point as long as the forthcoming election will not be “Comelected” by the administration, using the new Miru Solution as technology provider. In the previous elections, Smartmatic was the technology provider.

Miru is close to the word “miron”, which is a local term for meddling.

The way the COMELEC has been behaving lately, we can only opine that it is up to something sinister with our local electoral system. 

When the Supreme Court ruled that those whom COMELEC disqualified can run for congressional seats in their respective districts, the poll body wasted P135 million worth of ballots.

Parang wala lang as kanila ito!

Again, a certain vice mayoralty candidate in Isabela brought to the attention of the COMELEC how the Miru machines can be easily manipulated through the use of the Internet.

Chairman Garcia’s knee-jerk reaction was to file a case against the said complainant who is a CPA, lawyer, and an IT specialist.

To me, George Garcia is turning to be a lackey of the administration.

Going back to the optimism of my friend Raul Lambino, the PDP Laban ticket should waste no time in addressing this immediate concern.

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I understand that a Women’s Summit, attended by some 3,5000 delegates from 31 barangays of Dagupan, was recently conducted by the office of Mayor Belen Fernandez.

These were 3,500 or so mothers coming from all corners of Dagupan.

I am just wondering whether the problem about segregating wastes right at their houses was also discussed.

As home-keepers, the women should lead in the segregation of their wastes as well as the education component on this matter among their newly formed group “Maaron Ina”.

To me, this topic is as important as the other topics discussed.

Spending even just 30 minutes for lecture and practicum in segregation, to inform the “Maaron Ina” about their important role in helping make our city clean, could make a big difference.

Happy Women’s Month.

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