THE EJK ISSUE IN POST-DUTERTE ERA

By Philip M. Lustre Jr.

HE may not understand it now, but President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody antidrug war that has resulted in over 20,000 extrajudicial killings (EJKs) in the first 20 months of his term would take its toll not only on him, but to his family - kids, grandkids, and descendants.

Even long after his death, his children and descendants would be hounded and condescendingly referred as "scions of the butcher of his own people." The ignominy is difficult to ignore.

Two developments are expected just in case the sick old man of the South is out of power and a new democratic government assumes power.

We could expect the creation of a commission that would conduct thorough investigations into the spate of EJKs that happened since he has taken power.

The envisioned commission is expected to exact justice for the EJK victims and propose public policy initiatives to prevent recurrence of unmitigated EJks in the future.

The commission would certainly attempt to go deeper into the EJK issues particularly the identification of the people who gave the orders, and implemented those illegal orders.

This issue would go possibly for years. There would not be an easy closure on this issue. This is not vindictiveness. This is justice.

When the sick old man and his minions gave orders to take the lives of certain people outside the ambit of the rule of law and without the benefit of due process, we could expect retribution in the form of justice.

The creation of the proposed commission is not without prejudice to the ongoing preliminary examination of the suits which a private lawyer and two Magdalo lawmakers have filed against the sick old and several others including former PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa and Sen. Richard Gordon, before the International Criminal Court.

Sen. Sonny Trillanes, Rep. Gary Alejano, and lawyer Jude Sabio have raised crimes against humanity against them.

Aside from the issue of reputation, the sick old man and his family would be hounded by indemnification issues. They would be hounded by suits of families of the EJK victims, who would seek indemnity for the murders of their kin.

They would likely ask the courts to allocate the estate of the sick old man to indemnify the families of EJK victims. Hence, whatever they have earned or collected would only go as indemnity for families of victims of his bloody antidrug war.

The indemnification of the families of EJK victims would be a ticklish issue because it is likely to become an open ended question. There would be no easy settlement with the families.

There would be no easy formula for the computation of the exact amount of indemnity. There would be no easy way to satisfy the families of EJK victims.

At the moment, the families are unorganized and quiet. But at one point, or even during the tenure of office of the sick old man, they would just rise to exact justice and ask for what rightfully they deserve.