One of the fundamental precepts in the legal scriptures introduced by western colonialism to our society is the so called “due process” in the operation of our justice system. It is held sacred like a religious tenet by the high priests of the Philippine State. Among legal and paralegal practitioners, or the intelligentsia in general, who mumble it like a prayer, it has become a catchphrase, if not an injunction devoutly to be followed.
Of course we are all cognizant of how western culture has rooted deeply in our psyche as a people. And it is not surprising that the moneyed upper classes would be the first experts and beneficiaries of western c olonial legal system. They are the ones who have been schooled and not a few of them have landed on the legal profession— the lawyers, so called.
We must not forget however that many of these legal professionals have become politicians. Their common longing has been to be counted among the ‘honorables’ in Congress if not as respectable officials in the government bureacracy. They have the monopoly of the whys-and-wherefores of the legal system — its doctrines and principles — much like the Churchmen are experts of the Bible.
We are also aware that the criminals in our society—the most vicious and cleverest among them are at the helm of government— are the unscrupulous politicians. They have conveniently employed the precept of “due process’ to escape culpability and accountability for their various crimes against the people and humanity. The very instrument for the ends of justice is being used and handled malevolently to make a mockery of justice. In the guise of hollow rhetorics as “in the name of public interest”, or “in behalf of the people”.. or “in defence of democracy” . ”etcetera…etcetera.” . . the Government had to massacre dissenters. . .bomb rural peoples. . . . appropriate hefty sums of money for inefficient officials. . . and so forth and so on in unending trail of oppression and exploitation, social injustice, official corruption and iniquities.
In a confusing hocus-pocus of legal proceedings incomprehensible to the ‘common tao’ the big criminals in the State bureaucracy can go scot free and the cycle of crime perpetration continues. That is why the cliche “Ang mga balaod ug prisohan gi-imbento na para sa mga pobre” ( The laws and prison houses are invented for the poor) has remained as an utterance of lament among the wretched of the earth. It has in fact grown ever louder through all these years in the life of our Philippine Republic.
But for the money-less lower classes—they whom the educated call the “great unwashed”– the language of the law is a virtue remotely to be grasped or understood. It is thus a common fate for them to become victims of legal manipulation. Their ignorance of the law, both of its spirit and its letter, has been their coffin and common graveyard.
“Justice delayed is justice denied”, is still the age-old battlecry among the poor masses in the cities and countryside. Never in the history of this nation has injustice in various forms and degrees of cruelty been diminished or stopped. The State has continuously upgraded its technology of violent suppression and repression purportedly to quell the intensifying resistance of the masses who are fed up with the incumbent rotten social system.
Instead of giving substance to the hollow avowals of “matuwid na daan”, the Aquino government has reneged on its mandate and responsibilities, feeding the Filipino citizenry with lies and deceit and chicanery. And because the people can no longer be fooled and cajoled, the government has unleashed its fascist violence making use of more and more egregious forms of attacks against people’s human rights. In so doing, the more that the people’s resistance broadened and heightened with their own innovative forms of struggle in defence of their rights and their dignity. And never have the hapless poor ceased their resistance, brandishing their fists and shrill voices against the inhumanities imposed by the ruling power. This is shown by the exemplary revolutionary deeds of the Lumads in Mindanao’s countryside.
If the fascist forces of the State—the AFP (Armadong Fuerza sa Panulay) and its savage paramilitary units—continue their spiral of satanic violations of the people’s human rights, the revolutionary masses of workers, peasants and Lumads would continue to impose revolutionary justice against these evil violators of the people’s rights.
Some reactionary imbeciles among the well-to-do middle classes would ask “But what’s the difference between the extra-judicial killings committed by the military and those by the NPA?”
There is no parallel between the AFP’s rampant killing spree and the NPA’s exaction of revolutionary justice. The AFP of Noynoy Aquino commi ts the most inhuman crimes against the masses in blind obedience to its mandate to protect the foreign mining corporations who plunder the country’s mineral resources and despoil the environment. On the other hand, the NPA imposes the death penalty as punishment against the enemies of the masses — the exploiters and oppressors of the masses, the local warlords who commit brutal crimes against the innocent civilians — through the prudent use of revolutionary violence.
The NPA, as soldiers of the masses, along with other revolutionary forces in society, are in a civil war against the fascist military and its paramilitary minions. And in civil war the people’s contingent of revolutionary warriors are waging a people’s war as armed resistance for the liberation and emancipation of the broad masses who have been deprived, impoverished and oppressed by the ruling system for a long long time without let-up. As the peoples’ army its historic revolutionary task is to engage relentlessly the enemies of the people — the ruling elite with their State Security Forces and their local cohorts with their private armies and the paramilitary groups.
The crucial question here is: For whom do the AFP & the PNP exist? Whom do they serve? The clear answer is: They serve the interests of the big capitalist and landlord classes who oppress and exploit the grassroots majority. On the other hand, whom do the NPA and the other revolutionary forces serve? They unequivocally serve the people — the Lumad ancestral lands, the peasant masses’ lands rights, the welfare of the entire Filipino masses.
The local Trapo politicians, the congressmen, governors, mayors and political warlords who stand on the backs and shoulders of the masses, grabbing their lands and trampling their sacred rights, are the enemies of the people. Revolutionary violence is meted against them if they do not repent and reform their crooked ways. Much more so, if they have blood debts against the masses owing to all sorts of cruel anti-people acts and tyrannical practices. They should be punished in conformance to the will and judgment of the people after a fair and just trial by the people’s tribunals.
This is what constitutes revolutionary justice which is implemented with propriety, political will and promptness.
The masses in urban and countryside places have openly expressed their preference for the revolutiona ry justice system. They have a name for this — they fondly call it “grassroots justice”— the kind of justice system long dreamt and demanded by the grassroots masses in Philippine society.
Truly, the masses have longed for this kind of justice as the antithesis to the rotten justice system nurtured by the ruling clique of US imperialists,big landlords and big comprador capitalists.
Some have asked, Why is the US imperialists included in the ruling clique of Philippine society? Why? Because these few big capitalists and policymakers from the US have since time immemorial been the imperial power who dictate on the fundamental policies adopted by our Government. They have been instrumental in shaping the economic, political, military and cultural policies of our society as if they are the chosen leaders of our country. No, the Filipino did not elect them nor do they ask to be elected. They simply imposed their will by sheer chicanery and blackmail and through a system of puppetry whereby our top leadership in government is dictated upon through devious means, such as unequal treaties and agreements and other maneuvers that grant privileges for the advancement of their economic interest in our lands.
The term “US-Aquino regime” is a scientific verbal formulation that embraces the essential nature of the ruling power that governs Philippine society. It is the concise yet comprehensive representation of the ruling clique in the government leadership that insures the adoption of neo-liberal policies to advance US interests in the country. This also demonstrates the fact of US interventionism and President Aquino’s puppetry through the VFA and the EDCA which reinforce the capability of the AFP and PNP in their fascist attacks against the masses of the people.
Ultimately, the revolutionary armed resistance of the Filipino masses will crush the reactionary fascist violence of the US-Aquino regime through the ongoing people’s war. The revolutionary forces are determined to win final victory. The bankruptcy of the ruling elite will be thoroughly exposed and the entire Filipino nation shall rise to install a new government that is truly just, truly democratic and progressive and genuinely sovereign.
