Leni’s claim lacks basis

Batas Mauricio

I CAN concede that Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez Jr. of the House of Representatives is possessed with good and noble intentions in pursuing the re-imposition of the death penalty for Filipino criminals who commit heinous crimes. Yes, the objective is to eliminate criminality, particularly the proliferation of illegal drugs, and also to stop corruption that drains the government of billions and billions of fund.

But then, it is true, as many of those opposing death penalty here and abroad are pointing out, that the taking of the life of a person who committed a despicable crime never truly deterred anyone who has decided in his heart and in his mind to kill, steal, or do some other criminal act.

In fact, even when the death penalty was still existing in our own country, people continued committing crimes. They appeared to be totally unafraid of being killed on account of their heinous acts. The truth was that, even the public execution by firing squad of Lim Seng, a notorious drug lord during martial law, never truly stopped the drug trade. As we are seeing now, illegal drug trade prospered!

Consequently, Alvarez and his gang must pause for a while and consider other approaches in deterring crimes. They must realize that there must be a better way to stop people from becoming criminals other than their execution upon the orders of our courts. With due respect, I submit that this “better way” is the changing of the hearts and minds of Filipinos.

Simultaneous, perhaps, with efforts to return the death penalty should be equally furious efforts to teach our people–especially during their formative years—to observe the forgotten rules on good manners and right conduct, to strive to be more morally upright, and, most important of all, to achieve some degree of spirituality by having a healthy fear and love of God.

Right now, it is undeniable that Filipinos are now of the mental frame that they can do anything, even the most horrendous ones, and get away with it. We must reverse, or altogether remove, this by teaching them that there is a law greater than all human laws,  and this is the law of God which penalizes not only the doer but even his children to the third and fourth generations. Indeed, who wants his children and descendants to suffer because of one’s own acts?

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So, there! At least, one media personality finally found the guts (or, the wisdom, perhaps) to ask Vice President Leni Robredo to explain (as we have raised in this column earlier) her statement, during her press conference after the was ousted from the Duterte Cabinet, that the vice presidency would be stolen from her.

Veteran broadcaster and one-time vice president Noli “Kabayan” de Castro was this media personality, and given the contrasting backgrounds of Noli and Leni–Noli is a broadcaster all his life while Leni has been a practicing lawyer since she passed the bar–one would think Leni would be able to handle Noli’s questions like she was picking peanuts.

Amazingly, however, after Noli persisted in asking Leni to explain how the vice presidency would be stolen from her, Leni suddenly started groping for words, giving  convoluted and winding sentences, and even became hard of hearing, asking Noli to repeat his question. Indeed, Noli had to ask that same question thrice, so Leni could understand what was being asked of her, no matter how simple the questions actually were!

Yet, by her answers to Noli’s questions, it is clear that when Leni claimed on Monday that the vice presidency would be stolen from her, she was in reality without any solid evidence, and that, in her mind, she was merely suspecting a conspiracy between former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who protested against her, and the Supreme Court justices who compose the Presidential Electoral Tribunal and who will decide the protest.

To understand Robredo’s lack of evidence and having nothing but pure speculation a little better, let’s reproduce here what Noli’s question to Leni was, translated in English: “So, what you meant was that, the vice presidency would be stolen from you in connection with the protest of Bongbong against you?”

Here are Leni’s answers, and be the judge: “It is a part of the big plan to oust me from (my) position… You know, there are many signs that the camp of Bongbong Marcos is doing everything so that I could be removed from my post… and you know I cannot talk about the (protest) case, but they filed this protest even if they know they had no evidence…”