Thread by @RanhilioAquino

This is not a question of the “weaponization of the law”. This is a silly term to use. The law is a weapon. It is the State’s weapon and it can so function and be more than mere precept or admonition only if it is a weapon.

It is a matter of hijacking the legal system, of conscripting legal and judicial processes for partisan ends. In all such situations, there are always two victims: the legal system itself that suffers an erosion in its legitimacy and society, the cohesion of which in

post-traditional times depends largely on law and the juridical order. The law’s legitimacy does not lie in its capacity to summon the reserves of force and of violence in the State’s control. Any autocrat can do that.

It arises rather from the due constitution and functioning of a legislature that transfers to its chambers the rational exchange among citizens that generates genuine law. Thus enacted, binding law is legally backed by the coercive power of the State,

and also determines the legitimate “calling out” of force! There is therefore mutuality between force and law: It is because of force that law is more than optional, that there is a mandatory character to “jus” or right;

but it is also law that determines when the use of force is legitimate.

Four bishops, it has been reported, are to be subject to preliminary investigation on Friday on charges of inciting to sedition and obstruction of justice.

They are known critics of the administration, better, critics of many administration policies. They have made forceful statements against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. They have also manifested their disapproval of some aspects of the President’s demeanor

and speech. If the complainants present evidence that comes across as flimsy and insubstantial, and, far worse yet, if the Department of Justice finds probable cause and orders the filing of the necessary Information in court, then the suspicion of many will only be confirmed

that, once more, the processes of law have been hijacked and consc and speech. If the complainants present evidence that comes across as flimsy and insubstantial, and, far worse yet, if the Department of Justice finds probable cause and orders the filing of

the necessary Information in court, then the suspicion of many will only be confirmed that, once more, the processes of law have been hijacked and conscripted into service against critics of the present administration and against an institution that

has proven itself through the centuries to be formidable — the Catholic Church!

When this happens, the legitimacy of legal and judicial processes will cease to be clear and will no longer be taken for granted. While now, every arrest comes with the presumption that something

ripted into service against critics of the present administration and against an institution that has proven itself through the centuries to be formidable — the Catholic Church!

When this happens, the legitimacy of legal and judicial processes will cease to be clear and will no longer be taken for granted. While now, every arrest comes with the presumption that something has been found by the authorities against a suspect to engender probable cause,

it might very well be the unwanted and undesirable outcome of this ill-advised move against the bishops that citizens will ask: Who of the gods has been angered? What act of propitiation or placation has been wanting?

Then we desert the language of law and right and engage in a calculus of placation, servility and obeisance. That can never be good for a society that stakes a lot on the robustness of its legal system.

It may come across as hackneyed, but it remains true. It is blatant disregard of the law that poses an ominous threat to us all. The drug menace is in fact drug lords, peddlers and minions being the law unto themselves.

An island and ocean-usurping China is a neighborhood bully that does not bother to conceal its disregard for international law. The corruption that has sapped our national resources and enervated our national resolve at reform is

fundamentally the absence of all regard for the law. Eroding trust in, respect and regard for the law are the last things we need today. This government certainly does not need it like like it needs a bullet to the head!

For now, when the President lifts the sword of state against its enemies, its edge falls on them, and can fall very hard. Those who have stubbornly persisted in the traffic of contraband have experienced that.

But the sword of state is a double-edged sword and when wielded carelessly and recklessly it can fall with catastrophic consequences upon him who wields it! And while he can always (and perhaps truthfully) claim that he had nothing to do with the

Bikoy complaints against the bishops, the ineluctable fact is the prosecutorial service of state is an office of the executive branch. Like the legendary sword that the young Arthur was worthy to carry only

because his heart was pure, so must the sword of the law and of the State be drawn only with pure heart and noble motive.