Trillanes amnesty: the Filipino's spectacular society-level tolerance for IMPUNITY

Disappointing indeed. Hong Kong's expression of disappointment over the flaccid action taken by the Philippine Government on people found accountable for the deaths of eight tourists as a result gross incompetence comes in the wake of a similarly moronic granting of amnesty to "Senator" Antonio Trillanes and a mob of "soldiers", who also put civilian lives at significant risk as they stormed business establishments brandishing high-powered military weapons.

Consistent.

That is one word to describe how President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III's administration fixates to its focus on cronies and family members fat and content by selectively applying the softly-softly treatment to people who have done significant damage to the Philippines as a result of their hollow-headed ill-thought-through "initiatives".

Some of the excuses being bandied around by the esteemed officers of our so-called "Republic" are among the lamest I have come across even relative to the banal lameness of the Pinoy society we all know and love:

(1) Trillanes and his bozos have "suffered enough".

Cute. That's Philippine emo politics at its finest. That the good "Congressman" Lorenzo Tanada, author of House Resolution 524 granting amnesty to "Senator" Antonio Trillanes and his posse of bandits would cite the glacial pace at which the Philippine civilian and military criminal justice systems work makes his proposition even more pathetic.

First of all, I wonder now why any "resolutions" coming from Congress or "proclamations" coming from the President did not instead address that underlying problem. Rather than work with the system we work around it. And as we can observe today, that ethic overstepping proper procedure is reflected even at the top most echelons of our government.

Second, If these bozos had indeed "suffered" due to the ineffective processes of our civilian and military justice systems, then somebody who is responsible for these processes must also be held accountable for that "suffering" Trillanes et al supposedly sustained. For that matter, how about all those other poor sods who also have cases languishing in the system? They don't get this sort of "amnesty", do they?

(2) The Government is yielding to "clamors" coming from "certain sectors of society".

What and who constitute these "certain sectors of society". Cite specifics plez. According to Noynoy his "boss" is the Filipino people. So I am curious as to what he means by "certain sectors" of society. Does this imply that said "certain sectors" are representative of the "Filipino people"? Explain, plez.

And get this: Congress concur. I say that is a concurrence to a spectacular tolerance for the same old garden variety impunity that Filipinos have always been renowned for. Impunity, indeed, is a key pillar of our collective character as a people, and the Trillanes pardon is but another one of many MANY manifestations of this dysfunctional character.



And guess what: ALL Filipinos by virtue of the mandate they had granted to these "Congressmen" to represent them in matters of state are COMPLICIT to this tolerance for that nefarious trait of ours.

In summary, ladies, gentlemen, and tambays of our sad country, perhaps we should step back and think (I know it goes against our national grain, but thinking is what underpins productive action):

What exactly is going on here?

If we want to respect the rule of law, if we want to bow to the court, we should wait for the court decision [...]

The above is the wistful lament of Senior State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera who along with four other colleagues spent the last seven years building a case for the conviction of Trillanes and his mob of mutineers.