Is she a justice crusader or an immoral woman?

The atmosphere of the Philippine government at the moment is like a circus or tabloid newspaper. I do not know if the world is watching or not, because I do not know if the average citizens around the world care what is going on in the Philippines.

I believe the way the government deals with their drug problems is an internal matter and others should stay out of it. If the Philippine people are happy with the way their President is dealing with the problem then so be it. When they have had enough they will solve the problem for themselves. When the Philippine people had enough of Spain they booted them out, the same is true of the United States and President Marcos. I do not want outsiders (especially the United Nations) telling Americans how to run their country or what is best for our country.  

I admit I am confused by what the Philippine President says from day to day. One day he wants the U.S. military out of the Philippines and the next day he says he will allow them to stay. I am an expat living in the Philippines and frankly I do not care if the U.S. military is here or not. I would like to know if I am going to be able to stay or not. I am nearing eighty and in bad health. I have been advised by my doctors that I most likely could not survive a trip to the United States and I will be quite happy to die and be buried in the Philippines.

Today, I read posts in social media from some Philippine women about the Senator DE Lima's sex films. They feel that showing the films would shame her and that she should not be shamed because she is a woman. One said, “When you shame Senator DE Lima you are shaming all women.”  One said, “When you shame Senator DE Lima you are shaming all mothers, sisters, aunts and nieces in the Philippines.” How could that possibly be so? My mother, sisters, aunts or nieces have never made a sex tape. How could they be shamed by a sex video that Senator DE Lima allowed to be made. They are not responsible for what Senator DE Lima did and it in no way reflects upon them?

Is the sex video a fake? I do not know, but they appear to be real and if you take her private visits to the prisoners inside the maximum security prison and her attendance at parties sponsored by prisoners and her pictures hanging on the wall of prisons rooms it does not look good for Senator DE Lima. It certainly appears that she made bad decisions.

At the time Senator DE Lima was Secretary of Justice (Attorney General) why would someone in that position allow prisoners to sponsor private parties and invite outside guest to raise money? Why would someone in that position allow prisoners to have their own private quarters with offices and conference rooms and computers? Why would someone in that position visit those private quarters and attend those parties? I wish I could say that I never doubted Senator DE Lima’s sincerity, but I always have, even when she headed up the Human Rights Organization in the Philippines. Her motivation has always been in question by me.

How does it help the people of the Philippines to cover-up her transgression. Does anyone deserve a pass simply because they are a woman, elected official or celebrity? I personally do not think so. In fact I think people in those position, women and men, should be held to a higher standard.

Corruption within the government has been allowed by the people of the Philippines for so long I do not even know how you would begin to clean it up. Perhaps President Duterte’s way is the only way. I am certainly not comfortable with extra judicial killings or vigilante killings, but if the whole system is corrupt how do you clean it up? I still believe President Duterte is doing what he thinks is best for the country. I also can feel his frustration for his countrymen, especially the poor.

I was ask today if Senator DE Lima has ever admitted to doing any wrong and I honestly do not know if she had or not. I have not heard her do so. I could easily forgive anyone that admitted they were wrong and ask forgiveness. It is difficult for me to ignore wrong or the perception of wrong when the person will not admit to their wrong doings or that they may have committed acts that would lead others to perceive she or he had done wrong. Senator DE Lima has not presented any argument thus far that would persuade me that she is not guilty.

God blessed the Philippines with lots of potential. God blessed the Philippines with beautiful landscapes. There is absolutely no reason a country with educated young people to be a Third World Country. Do you blame the people or the corrupt politicians? 

I have learned in my near eight decades on this earth that as long as you allow any human being to take advantage of you they will, so I must ask why have the Philippine people allowed EDSA to be in vain. There will be a price to pay, sacrifices to make for the people to gain control of their government and they must decide is it worth it or not. One thing I am sure of you cannot keep electing the same corrupt politicians and expect things in your life to get better. THINGS only get better in the politicians lives when you keep electing them over and over again. I have never believe politics was meant to be a lifetime career. 

I want to state the same thing is happening in the United States. We are not electing politicians that give a darn about the people of the United States. They are not in politics to devote their lives to service of the country or the people they are in politics to advance their own personal interest. Of all the people in the United States we cannot find two people better qualified than Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump to run for President. I suppose people that are honest, truthful and moral no longer are interested in associating day in and day out with thugs and criminals.  It is up to the young people in the Philippines and the United States to bring about change in politics for us old people have screwed it up for you.

In closing I cannot wrap my mind around where or when did Senator DE Lime go bad. Was it the result of one bad decision or an accumulation of many bad decisions or was it she forgot what she set out to do and allowed vengeance for one man, the Mayor of Davao City, to take control of her? She had everything going for her and her legacy could have been similar to Senator Santiago, but instead the final chapter of her life story will read like a cheap novel. 

There is a lesson for us all in this story and that is our decisions do matter. Every decision will play a role in our life story be they good or bad. Not only do our decisions/actions matter the perceptions others have of our decisions/actions matter. If she would have only stopped for a moment and given thought to what she was doing perhaps she would not have taken the wrong path and the same is true for us. Once you start living a lie you will live that lie until you die or be destroyed when the truth comes out. 

Judicial justice or vigilante justice - you decide.

The criminal justice system doesn’t always gets things right, and wouldn’t even if all those running it were honest and fair and sometimes it seems few of them are, but the alternative is far worse. Vigilante justice in which the citizens and police officers acts as judge, jury and executioner without given the accused a day in court is dangerous to all of society. You are foolish if you think because you are a law abiding citizens it has nothing to do with you. Road rage is vigilante justice! Today vigilante justice may seem justified by many in society when it comes to drugs, child abuse, elderly abuse, pedophiles and rape, but who is to say vigilante justice will stop with just those illegal acts.

If you think everyone ever accused of a crime is guilty I again say you are foolish. Innocent people can be targeted. Lisa-Jayne Samuels was given a 20 month sentence for making a false rape allegation against Terry Brown. Lisa-Jayne Samuels was a serial rape liar, but initially the police took her claim seriously. Mr. Brown was attacked by a vigilante mob who stabbed him. Even worse, his pregnant fiancée tripped and fell during a confrontation and suffered a miscarriage. The man was innocent and eventually Lisa-Jayne Samuels was charged for filing false charges and convicted.

American vigilantism originally came about as a frontier response to the threat and reality of crime. The first settlers who moved to the Deep South and the Old West were not protected by a criminal justice system. There were no law enforcement agencies, no regularly scheduled court sessions, no nearby jails or prisons, and there was a vast open spaces to which offenders could escape from their victims. In the absence of any legal system victims and their allies felt compelled to track down and round up outlaws and "take the law into their own hands.”  That is not the case today.

People claim that the justice system today is only for the wealthy. Those people who claim that and support vigilantism need to study history and see who the vigilantes punished and even killed. They did not go after the wealthy they went after the lower class people and marginalized people.  

Vigilantism usually is the results of the government not doing its job and the citizens becoming frustrated. Instead of correcting the problems in government it is easier for some in society to go after the one they deem the ‘criminal’. Anyone and I mean anyone who supports vigilantism is breaking the law.

To legitimize their lawless deeds, vigilantes argued that their ends justified their means. They claim they are trying to preserve traditions, enforce moral codes, and further respect for authority. Their biggest claim is that they are trying to protect law-abiding citizens from internal and external evil forces.

More concerned with suppressing disruptive behavior than with respecting due process some elected officials approve of vigilantism.  It is simple, direct, swift, certain and those that are looking for a so called quick fix will support vigilantism. They will turn a blind eye to all the evils of vigilantism.

The Ku Klux Klan in the United States was a vigilante group. Originally they went after husbands that were abusive or neglecting their families, but they then started going after Black people, Jews, Catholics and those that were said not to have paid a debt.  Black Life’s Matter Organization in the United States is a vigilante group.

If you support vigilantism then why do you not support revenge killings, drive-by shootings, turf battles between rival drug-selling groups, and mob hits among warring syndicates. These are all a type of vigilantism. Teenagers act as vigilantes when they attack homeless vagrants and drive them away or set them on fire. Police Officers themselves engage in police vigilantism if they beat a suspect on the street, during the ride to the police station, or in its basement, in order to make sure the perpetrator is punished before being released with a mere "slap on the wrist" by the "revolving door" of an lenient justice system. When society ignores vigilantism police officers feel more empowered to carry out their street justice (vigilantism).

 Some in The right-to-life movement—convinced that abortion constitutes murder—assassinated doctors who legally terminated pregnancies or bombed the clinics where these medical procedures are performed (vigilantism). White supremacist Neo-Nazi groups randomly attacked complete strangers because of their race or religion because they are seeking vigilante justice. Militia groups are vigilantes. They set up their own "common law courts."

Support any type of vigilantism and I will venture to say one day it will come back to haunt you. You will find yourself on the other side of the fence and then you will oppose curb justice or vigilantism.  When you have a government that is endorsing vigilantism there is nothing that will stop it and while you fight drug addicts and pusher today in a few years you will be fighting vigilantes. This should be of grave concern for those that feared the regime of Marcos in the Philippines.

The Philippines in 1915 earned the dubious distinction of having the worst record of 87 countries in bringing wrongdoers to justice, according to a study of countries plagued by impunity. Is this the drug pusher or drug addicts fault? I do not think corruption in the Philippines is the cause of impunity, but it is the results of impunity. If you believe you are not going to be caught or punished for a crime you are more likely to commit a crime. Yes, corruption contributes to impunity, but it is not the cause. A failed justice system is the root cause of impunity. I believe  countries that do not provide opportunities for economic development also fail to reduce the unequal access to security and justice for their citizens.

Most courts in the Philippines have over one thousand cases on their dockets – an impossible task. Is that the fault of drug users and drug pushers? The Justice Department claims there are not enough courts. Is that the fault of drug users and drug pushers? A lot of the courts that are established do not have judges to staff them. Is that the drug users and drug pushers fault? judges appointed to cases take longer than the time limitation of three months fixed by the Constitution for them to decide a case some cases go on for years. Is that the drug user or drug pushers fault? Do the cases move at a snail pace because there are no jury system in the Philippines and all cases are decided by a judge? If that is the case is that the fault of a drug user or drug pusher?  Maybe vigilantism looks good now, but will it really solve the problems that plagues Philippine justice?   I do not think so.

As of August 3, 2016 Police figures show that 402 drug SUSPECTS have been killed since the end of June. That figure does not include those slain by suspected vigilantes. Two hundred eleven more men are known to have been killed by vigilantes. These being killed are not rich people they are the poor in Philippine society. They are not the wealthy Drug Lords - many of them are a part of government. 565,805 have turned themselves in and promised to straighten out their lives and released. Drug addiction is not something you can cure with a promise and the Philippine government does not have the facilities or the funds to provide rehabilitation for these men. What has happen when these men turned themselves in they put a target on their backs to be killed by vigilantes.

Innocent until proven guilty - justice – equal treatment for all - moral legitimacy are the rights guaranteed to the people living under a democratic government and without those rights they might as well be living under a dictator or monarch.  Freedom is a slippery hill to climb and when you start sliding backwards you do not usually stop until you have lost all your freedom. 

Your vote can make a difference!

It is a sad day when the people of the world have to ask us if we are Christians! It is time we return our country to Christian core values by voting for politicians who will enforce present laws and make new laws that - end political correctness that has become insane, end trafficking of children and women, end drug lords from controlling our neighborhoods, stop funding public universities where professors are corrupting our children, punish those who commit blue collar crimes, force our people in government to obey the Constitution, return the balance of powers to the three branches of our government, end late term abortions, establish government funded mental institutions, create jobs to end poverty and not more welfare programs, enforce our immigration laws, protect our borders and build up our military to prevent wars, not start them. We do this by allowing our principles and not our personal greed to dictate our vote on election day.