'Former senator Leila de Lima was cleared of all drug charges, Vice President Sara Duterte quit as education secretary, and the Philippine government tripped over itself'
By Tuesday, June 25, the Philippine Navy’s Seaman First Class Underwater Operator Jeffrey Facundo confirmed during a Senate hearing what had already been reported in the news. Facundo was the soldier who was injured and whosebecause the CCG punctured the Navy’s rigid hull inflatable boats and seized disassembled rifles. Like barbaric pirates at sea, the CCG descended upon the Navy soldiers who were on a resupply mission to the BRP Sierra Madre stationed in Ayungin Shoal.
The acquittal from this third and last charge – conspiracy to commit drug trading inside the New Bilibid Prison purportedly to raise funds for her 2016 senatorial bid – was bittersweet. It showed how politicized and polluted the judicial system had become under the autocratic Duterte, even as itCourts are supposed to decide on the basis of facts and evidence, but clarity of judgment can be clouded and compromised by legitimate fears of losing jobs, physical threats, and even death.