SO THE Supreme Court has approved new rules of extradition of Filipinos. It is A.M. No. 22-03-29-SC.
It says “only Philippine Courts, not the Executive Branch, can authorize the surrender to foreign jurisdiction.”
The rule further says that the Department of Justice has to file a petition before a Regional Trial Court, which alone may issue arrest warrants and approve extradition after a final judgment.
What exactly is the reason for this action by the Supreme Court? Is it triggered by the controversy of the arrest (or was it surrender?) of former President Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC)?
If it is, then it is too late for the same ruling to be invoked by those who questioned the former President’s handover – if we may call it that – to the said international litigating body.
According to the Supreme Court itself, the Rules will take effect in November 2025 or several months after the Duterte “surrender” to the ICC based in The Hague, Netherlands.
With the late rules issuance it appears that the Supreme Court is “too late the hero” as far as the former President’s case is concerned.
Nonetheless, some top officials associated with the former leader’s war on illegal drugs could benefit from it.
By the wa,y extradition is defined in Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary as “an act of handing over a suspected criminal by an authority, or a state to another, usually covered by a treaty, for the alleged crime/s committed to be tried.”
Whether those who are working for the return of the former President to the Philippines by the ICC can still make something out of the new Supreme Court rules, we really have no idea, not even an iota of it.
We can only hope the former President’s lawyers still can.
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The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) is appealing to the public, especially to those who are recipients of food pack assistance and other relief items, not to make fun of the aid from the government.
Well, we believe that in times of calamity, when food is hard to come by and there is an extreme need for survival, any assistance deserves the beneficiary’s appreciation.
Or are some victims’ political affiliation and partisanship playing a major role in their mockery of the food packs coming from the government?
It is our personal take that being so cocky or selective in appreciating relief goods, especially food items, during the most trying times of people’s lives is not appropriate. Whatever help comes during deadly calamities deserves appreciation if only for the victims to tide over while in the initial days of recovery; more so if the magnitude of the disaster is massive and the number of victims is huge.
But of course, there are those who refuse to see the real situation and allow their prejudices to rule over their hearts and minds.
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News report: The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) confirms that three (3) air assets associated with former Partylist congressman Zaldy Co, a leading suspect in the multi-billion-peso corruption allegations, have already flown out of the country.
We can recall that the air assets of the former congressman were ordered grounded after the corruption cases blew wide open to the public. Who gave the clearance to the pilots of the air assets of Co to come out of the hangar and fly out of the country?
Without doubt, this incident is another case of conspiracy by some personalities running the airport operation and the henchmen of the top corruption suspect.
This should be investigated by the rightful body, and whoever is responsible for the flight out of the country should be held accountable.
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Vice President Sara Duterte and Sen. Bong Go were two of the principal sponsors in the wedding of a military officer in Quezon City last Tuesday.
The two posed in stride with the newlywed and with some of the new couple’s closest of relatives.
Now they may already be friends, although a few weeks before, the VP strongly denied that the Senator is her friend and supporter, saying Go is a friend (and supporter, of course) of his father, former President Duterte.
